Artist Marina De Bris has won the Mayor’s award for her installation of an “Inconvenience Store” at this year’s Sculptures by the Sea exhibition in Bondi.
While the art piece itself might be confuse viewers upon first sight, the installation is a store front but also “art with a message” according to De Bris.
Every piece that is part of the installation was collected by De Bris from the beaches of Bronte, Tamarama and Coogee, as it washed up on the shore.
The artist has collected countless plastic fish soy sauce bottles, Santa hats and other items such as odd thongs, sunglasses, coffee cups, bottle caps and cigarette butts- various pieces of pollution.
For the installation she bagged and added packaging to make it look like each piece of debris was for sale.
Ms De Bris said her idea to repurpose rubbish first came when she lived in Bondi in the 1990s and then moved Venice Beach in California.
“I saw the beaches there too were filthy with washed up trash so since 2009 I’ve been picking up litter and making art with it to deliver a message,” she said.
Ms De Bris’s artwork saw her take home the Waverley Council mayor’s prize.