Ring Cycle
For POSE Wearable Art 2021
Recycled PET plastic ring collars
Photos by Fiona Cochrane

Ring Cycle is created primarily of multi-coloured plastic ring collars from single-use bottles, then melted together into a chain mail fabric. The environmental impact of these rings is devastating and destructive to wildlife. Birds are tempted like a lure to pick them up as they float on the ocean’s surface and end up wearing them as collars, then are slowly strangled to death.

The circular form of the rings also refers to the cradle-to-grave life cycle of good design on commercial products. Goods should be designed to consider the raw material, manufacturing, distribution, product use, and how they will finish their life. Ideally composted or 100% reused.

The hyperbolic shapes mimic the nudibranchs and marine algae that dwell on the ocean floor.  We deliberately utilise the lolly-like colours that ‘pop’ against the black to highlight a seriously tragic problem