Perth Voice Interactive

BEING encased tightly in old fishing net on a beach, in crocodile-infested territory, seemed like a good idea at the time but Cecile Williams got cold feet as the tropical waters lapped.

“I thought it would make a good photo, but after that experience I wouldn’t do that again,” she tells the Voice.

The Denmark-based artist is using her latest exhibition Trapped to raise awareness of the terrible toll that discarded fishing nets and other debris have on the marine environment.

Unable to move, with visions of crocs rampaging through her mind, Williams won a whole new appreciation for the suffering of aquatic animals, trapped with no handy photographer to untangle them.

“The more they fight the more tangled they get,” she says.

“Some are injured…noses and eyes get cut. The net is like scissors, sharp and hard.”

Over the past five years Williams has collected an astonishing amount of rubbish washed up on beaches in the far north-west to create her sculptures.

The works tell intricate and personal stories of her time in remote communities affected by debris, some accidentally washed overboard, some discarded because it’s damaged and not worth hauling home.

But long after the boats are back in port their “ghost nets” continue to wreak havoc on sea life, damage coral reef and pollute beaches: “[Floating] almost unseen and propelled by the ocean currents,” Williams says.

Trapped is on at Central Tafe’s Gallery Central, 12 Aberdeen Street, Perth May  18–June 11. 

by JENNY D’ANGER