Transformations, the Art of Recycling exhibition, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford 2000-2002.
For ‘Attraction’ and other works in her series ‘Forlorn Objects Reunited’, Bridgette Ashton collected plastic debris from the beach near her home in Cornwall. The material ranges from broken beach toys and a suprising number of bits and pieces of dolls to ship’s jetsam-bits of crates, buoys, nylon ropes, container lids, and packaging. She sorted and classified the material (mostly by colour) before using it to fill transparent bags: ‘I wanted to give an overall feel of the bag’s contents, while creating a desire to find out what else is inside.’ The status of these bags of rubbish of beach pollution was then enhanced and elevated by their being embellished and decorated with jewel coloured plastic toys and knickknacks. Thus the banal qualities of the raw materials were converted into ‘talisman-like objects’.

Extract from exhibition catalogue by Jeremy Coote, Chris Morton and Julia Nicholson.

'Attraction' made from plastic beach debris and other materials by Bridgette Ashton (born 1967) in 1998; 30.0cms wide.