Debris of Our Own Making

Artist: Laura Bernardeschi Nelson

Price £800
Medium: Mixed media on canvas (wallpaper, gesso, North Sea sand, acrylics, parcel paper, real seaweeds, found fishing net, rope, spray-painted can)
Size: 80 × 100 cm
Presentation: Unframed, ready to hang

Artwork Description

Debris of Our Own Making is part of Laura Bernardeschi Nelson’s Climate Change collection, a series dedicated to exposing the fragile state of our oceans and the accelerating impact of human activity on marine ecosystems.

The artwork blends paint with authentic materials gathered along the North Sea shoreline—seaweed, tangled fishing nets, frayed rope, and sand—creating a textured seascape that shifts between beauty and disturbance. The pale, translucent “fish bellies,” crafted from parcel paper, evoke marine life washed ashore, while the dark spray-painted can stands as a stark symbol of oil pollution.

The composition merges natural and man-made debris, allowing the sea’s own remnants to become part of the artwork. This fusion turns the canvas into a physical archive of environmental harm, serving as a quiet yet powerful reminder of our collective responsibility for the oceans’ decline.