Artwork made from material submerged for months in Mandurah marina features in an exhibition exploring the effects of climate change.
Denmark-based artist Verity Byth said her exhibition Shelter aimed to amplify the voices of women and children experiencing homelessness, “particularly in the experience of homelessness in climate catastrophe”.
“We’re not doing shelter well now, and then climate catastrophe puts us in a place where even the idea of shelter for people who had it is taken away,” Byth said.
The multimedia exhibition features artworks from a wide range of mediums, from dioramas to an installation that charts the path of “rising out of homelessness” and stitched textile pieces.
One of the largest pieces, titled Our Community is Our Shelter, is in the shape of a boat made out of old bed sheets that Byth submersed in the Mandurah marina, leaving them on the seafloor in a cray pot for three months.
“When you look in Mandurah estuary it’s very beautiful, very clear water and so I was expecting if the material sat on the bottom of the sand for three months that it would come back out maybe the same colour but with things growing on it or living in it,” Byth said.
“And I was a bit shocked to find that it was completely covered in marine sludge, which was kind of unpleasant to look at but even more unpleasant to smell.”
After removing the sheets from the marina and finding them home to crabs and other creatures, Byth washed and cleaned the sheets before creating the boat structure, named She Rescue.
Shelter is open at Contemporary Art Spaces Mandurah until September 3.