Artists create Gulliver-inspired piece from waste material from beaches

Sunday 18 February 2018

A local artist and his wife have created a herring gull mural entirely from waste materials collected from Jersey beaches, which has been named 'Gulliver' in memory of the gull who was moved to Les Minquiers in December.

The mural was created for the Education Room at the Wetland Centre with the help of visitors who stopped at the centre as part of its World Wetlands Day celebrations on 4 February.

Local artists Ian and Ruth Rolls lead two workshops with the visitors. They only used items of rubbish found on local beaches to create the mural. Mr Rolls explained: "There is all this rubbish that gets washed up on the shores. It is about trying to make something positive out of the negative. A lot of kids took part in the workshop and selected bits of plastic to use. It was a real community project!"

The National Trust suggested the image of a seagull as the birds are among the most affected species by rubbish found on beaches and in the sea, whether they eat it or get tangled up in it. Mr Rolls said: "You can't stress it ever enough, everyone needs to look at what they are doing and throwing away. At last people are waking up to the danger of single use plastics."

The mural was eventually named Gulliver as he is a "peculiar seagull," whose recent presence in the news made him perfect to represent his species in the eyes of the visitors.

The 'friendly' seagull, who made a name for himself by approaching islanders and their dogs on St. Ouen's beach, was moved to Les Minquiers in December. To aid with his identification, he was released wearing a single red ring on its right leg which features on the mural at the Wetland Centre. There has been no sighting of the gull in Jersey since its release.

Video: Gulliver being released at Les Minquiers.