Aly de groot

Influenced by the diversity of cultures and the intensity of climate and landscape in Northern Australia, I am an independent fibre artist whose inter-disciplinary practice involves translating basket making techniques with plant as well as man-made materials such as recycled fishing nets to make woven sculpture, installations and photographic imagery of plants and woven objects. The foremost issue addressed in my art making and educating is the use and importance of fibre art as a contrivance for responding to and educating people about environmental issues. Regularly exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions as well as facilitating contemporary fibre art workshops for both adults and children, I value the inspiration and knowledge gained and exchanged through formulating ideas and projects which can inspire and educate people, using readily available materials that may otherwise pose an environmental threat. Since 2005 I have been experimenting with discarded fishing nets to make ‘ghost net baskets’. These baskets are, in actuality, dysfunctional as utilitarian objects , and their primary purpose is to establish a creative avenue for educating people about these nets as well as finding a creative opportunity to utilize a dire environmental threat.Once they are removed from the oceans and beaches, ghost nets continue to be a ecological burden becominglandfill or omitting poisonous green house gases when they are burnt.In March 2011 I worked with Ghost Net Australia and Indigenous Rangers and Weavers on Groote Eylandt in remote Northern Australia to find creative ways to use the nets to make baskets, bag, sculpture and wearable art. Last year I was an invited guest at a design School in Finland for an inter-university seminar focusing on nets, to tell the ghost net story and search for more creative solutions to utilise ghost nets in art and design. Although weaving is often used as an ecological metaphor, the physical act of adopting contemporary basket making techniques, along with plant fibres and recycled detritus can promote an intimate understanding of responsibility and relationship to place as well as utilize and creatively dispose of detrimental man-made clutter. As a recipient of a University Post Graduate Scholarship to undertake research for a PhD, I am focusing on environmental and social issues in regards to fibre art and basketry in the Northern Australia.