Plastic Paradiso began in Panama, at the Tribal Gathering Festival. Wandering along the shoreline away from the festival site, I stumbled upon a haunting landscape: deserted beaches buried in ocean plastic, in some places knee-deep. At first, I was horrified—but gradually I began noticing the strange beauty hidden among the debris: unexpected colours, curious shapes, and familiar objects long forgotten. I gathered some of these fragments, transformed them into makeshift artworks, and brought them back to the festival. The response was immediate and powerful. Audiences were intrigued, then stunned, when they realised these sculptures were made entirely from sea plastic.

The following year, Plastic Paradiso took shape as a full installation—a beach kiosk filled with objects salvaged from the tide: toothbrushes, combs, kids toys, beauty and cleaning products, water bottles, fishing tackle, and countless other traces of human life. Alongside sculptures built from this material, the kiosk became a theatre space where we staged playful performances: mock auctions, guessing games, and interactions that reframed waste as something both absurd and alarming, but also valuable, costing us the earth in fact as they do. The irony of these “products” being washed up for sale again was not lost on anyone.

When I returned in 2020, the pandemic left me stranded in Panama— stuck on the beach surrounded by the plastic detritus that had inspired the project. That time of isolation deepened my commitment to the work. The collection gathered there in that time, along with new material from Mexico, forms the foundation of Plastic Paradiso today. What began as a shocking discovery has grown into a body of sculptures, performances, and immersive experiences that ask us to look again at what we discard, and to recognise the stories carried by the plastic that now circulates through not only our oceans and our lives, but our bodies too!

Below images of 4 pieces in situ Panama 2019, The Green Goddess – Earth, Sick of Colgate, The Sea samurai and The Blue Goddess – Water. The Colgate piece featured just some of the over 300 colgate toothbrushes found in just a few miles of remote coastline in 4 weeks. Main image below is the Kiosk remade for Sparks Bristol in 2025.

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