Viva Brighton Issue #73 March 2019

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Kittie Kipper
Caroline Bond is weaving the seas clean
Seaford-based artist/activist
Caroline Bond weaves
discarded ghost nets and
other marine debris into
useful and beautiful things,
posting her creations (and
suggestions for living a more
sustainable lifestyle) on her
Instagram feed
@kittiekipper.
I started the ghost net
weaving after seeing some
bowls from Sierra Leone
that were woven from
plastic bags. I’d been beach
cleaning for years and I thought, ‘instead of putting
this stuff in the bin, I could make things with it’.
Then the supermarkets brought in the charge for
plastic bags and it was amazing how quickly the
bags disappeared from the beaches. But I was still
finding loads of discarded ghost nets and fishing
wire, so I started working with that.
The artwork is a conversation starter and
an introduction to my way of thinking. I
explain about the ghost nets, why I choose to use
them and what damage they are doing to ocean
animals. I didn’t want to just make stuff that
looked nice, I wanted people to have a reaction
to it and talk about the bigger picture. I started
posting what I was making on Instagram but
the more beach cleaning I did and the more I
changed my choices, I thought it was time to start
talking about that too.
I do two beach cleans a day. At Seaford Beach,
Hope Gap or Tide Mills, mostly when I’m out
with the dog, but I litter-pick whenever I leave
the house. I find balloons on the beach every day.
Many are from McDonalds or from corporate
events, so I can track how far they have travelled.
I’ll contact the companies
but it’s very hard to speak to
someone who can do anything
about it. You get passed from
person to person, but it all
helps. It’s about constantly
turning up, being present,
nudging.
Beach cleaning and litter
picking have changed every
aspect of how I live my
life. When I realised that
the products I was putting
in my shopping basket were
reflected in the rubbish I was
putting into my beach-clean bag, I realised that I
needed to take responsibility for my choices as a
consumer. It’s grown from there.
I’m a big advocate of menstrual products
being reusable, washable or made from
natural materials. I find plastic tampon
applicators on the beach everyday and, despite
the local sewage works telling me it’s impossible,
still they are there. They could be coming from
anywhere. I find shotgun cartridges from Canada,
all sorts of stuff from all over the place.
Simple changes really help. Like carrying your
own reusable coffee cup. If everyone did that,
it would make a massive difference. Likewise, if
you’re offered a plastic straw, get into the mindset
of asking yourself ‘do I really need it?’ If you do,
that’s fine. People don’t want to hear that they’re
doing something wrong but our dependence on
plastic has really snuck into our culture. Making
something that we can’t get rid of and that you
see discarded everywhere, it’s actually terrifying.
As told to Lizzie Lower
Watch Caroline’s talk from TEDxBrighton 2018
at ted.com
....29....