Sauge Squid Item Number: 3431/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Giant squid sculpture made from reclaimed plastic fishing nets ("ghost nets"), plastic twine, mild steel, and galvanized wire. The figure has a partial metal frame inside. The squid has a long mantle made of net and coiled plastic, six white arms with coiled red suction cups, and two longer feeding tentacles with blue netting on the diamond-shaped tips. It has two giant circular eyes on either side of its head, a round open mouth with black beak, a multi-coloured fringe-like collar, and two long fins made of black and gold net with white coil decorations.
Erub Island is located in the Torres Strait Islands, north of Australia. Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists from the Erub Arts Collaborative have worked with ghost nets (abandoned fishing nets) to create sculptural marine life including coral, fish, turtles, sharks and jellyfish. Many of these creations were featured in an exhibtion called "Ghost Nets of the Ocean", in Australia, which brought to light the artists’ concerns for the environmental damage caused by rogue nets, and the irreparable harm that discarded nets cause to marine life. While creating the sculpture, the Erub Arts Collaborative artists decided this squid would be a female, named 'Sauge squid' after one of the artists.