Artists get festive with litter
After Sculpture by the Sea, the latest exhibition to make waves is a flotilla of sculptures in the sea as part of the Fremantle Festival.
The festival is celebrating its maritime connections with Art Adrift, a collection of floating artworks in Fishing Boat Harbour created mainly from flotsam collected around the Indian Ocean.
Artists Sandy McKendrick, Emma Washer and Cara Ratajczak have co-ordinated community artists in Fremantle and on Cocos and Christmas islands to make the 60 artworks from the tonnes of material that wash ashore each year.
McKendrick said the exhibition would look at the ebb and flow of ocean life that connected people around the region.
"The artworks are like cultural stepping stones connecting Cocos and Christmas islands with Fremantle across the Indian Ocean," she said.
"It brings the harbour alive."
Art Adrift would reflect on issues such as the fishing industry, boat people of all kinds, environmental concerns and simply the movement, colours and beauty of the ocean, McKendrick said.
Materials recycled as art included netting, ropes, plastic bags, children's toys, thongs, shoes, toothbrushes, goggles and sunglasses collected from the islands and along the mainland from the Kimberley to Fremantle.
"The beaches we have collected stuff from have often been half a metre deep in rubbish," McKendrick said.
"That's when you spend hours walking along and picking out stuff that is appropriate to use."
The Fremantle Festival, the oldest in Australia, runs from Friday until November 10.
Highlights include the Blessing of the Fleet on Sunday, an extensive theatre and music program, a children's fiesta, the Norfolk Lanes emerging rock bands concert, the Wardarnji Aboriginal festival and the street parade finale on November 10.
