Congratulations to our second open call winners!

We are excited to announce that from an inspiring selection of submissions, the three winning artists from our “Pure or Plastic?!” second international open call have been selected!

In May we put the call out to artists to respond to issues around plastic consumption, with a special emphasis on real-life strategies for change, under three categories REACT, REDUCE, REPLACE. We handed the vote over to the public to choose their favourite works and select the top ten in each category. From these finalists The Universal Sea jury panel had some tough decisions to make! All entries to the second open call will be featured in our upcoming guidebook “Pure or Plastic?!” and the following three winners also receive a 1000 Euro prize. 

Kojo Biney, Entangled
REACT winner



Performance, installation, photography, 2018, Ghana

Entanglement is a performance, installation, and photography work that engages viewers through the universal imagery of marine life entangled in plastic debris. The title describes the physical impact of our waste, but also communicates that we are all entangled in a communal responsibility to act. Using performance as intervention, Biney asks viewers to place themselves in the animal’s position and consider how we are all entangled in this future.
www.facebook.com/kojobineynatureart

Nezaket Ekici, Water to Water
REDUCE winner


Performance, 2015, Berlin

In Nezaket Ekici’s performance she stands in the water, connected to the shore by a billowing dress fitted with tubes for filtering the polluted water she drinks at her own risk. At the centre of Ekici’s bold performance is the simple fact that much of the world’s water, as an essential source for living, is polluted. Her own body, that she risks making ill, stands in for our natural environment. She invites viewers to drink the water that trickles out of her dress and think about where they fit in the cycle of water pollution.
http://www.ekici-art.de/ 

Antoaneta Tica, Are You Thirsty?
REPLACE winner


Wearable art, 2018, Photo by Stephen Heath Photography, courtesy of Wearable Art Mandurah

In textures and colours reminiscent of the ocean and the life it contains, Antoaneta Tica’s wearable sculpture both repurposes used PET plastic bottles and transforms the material to suggest a solution. By cutting, melting, and remodelling the plastic, Tica transforms it into a glass-like texture that points to how we all must make the move to glass bottles. As wearable art Are You Thirsty? goes beyond sculpture and also questions the choices we make as consumers of fashion and textiles.
https://www.behance.net/AntoanetaTica

As a special mention, we also want to share and congratulate the top-voted work from the round of public voting. This striking work by Paola Idrontino, The Messenger, responds to water pollution by invoking the swan as a symbol for purity, beauty, and a messenger of faith, as well as explicitly depicting the suffering of animals. Resembling high-fashion photography, the model wears a plastic bag crown, bringing the issue of consumer responsibility into the arena of beauty, fashion, and art.