The Net was first conceived in East Arnhem Land, while Chamberlain worked as a ‘female labourer’ on a remote pearl farm. Working in a male dominated environment, she considered her relationship with common construction materials, such as steel, wire, concrete mesh & other found objects. Finding herself in spaces that women don’t commonly occupy, she learnt and used trade methods to build sculptures. This experience led her to consider why women don’t employ these spaces, and importantly, what the spaces would look and feel like if they did. 

The sculpture is built from leftover scraps of square-tube steel from the structural frame of the build. A net-like armour. Locking the layers with tying wire, the sculpture grew into a chain-mail. A thistle-like blanket. 

As a labourer at the farm, Chamberlain’s primary role was to paint steel in galvanising or marine grade paints to protect the infrastructure from sea spray and salt damage. In spite of the workers efforts to conserve the work, the orange speckles that surfaced would remind us of the fierce and enduring nature of the ocean. Through this sculpture Chamberlain explores the antithesis of protection and entrapment, considering the vulnerability and ferocity of the sea, and the impact we have upon it. The Net could be thought of as both an armour and a weapon. 

The form resembles a ‘ghost net’, the term for ‘abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear that drifts through the ocean’, causing a serious threat to marine life. Due to their slow composition rate of 600-800 years, they continue to "ghost fish" and entangle marine life for a long time before they degrade completely. Surprisingly,a metal bolt in salty water for instance would degrade at a much faster rate, dissolving perhaps a year or two. The sculpture is a call to action.

References:

 Ocean Earth Foundation (2023). Ghost nets: The silent killer haunting our oceans - OceanEarthFoundation. [online] Ocean Earth Foundation. Available at: https://oceanearthfoundation.org.au/ghostnets-australia/.

 Hadley, S. (2020). Up to a Million Tons of Ghost Fishing Nets Enter the Oceans Each Year- Study. [online] Earth.org - Past | Present | Future. Available at: https://earth.org/up-to-a-million-tons-of-ghost-fishing-nets-enter-the-oceans-each-year-study/.