Daily Times

In response to the plastic waste issue in the Colombian Amazon, Spanish designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón began the PET Lamp Project in 2011-a design venture with the aim to reuse PET plastic bottles. Over the last five years, the eco-conscious designer has worked with traditional craft communities from all over the world-including Colombia, Chile, Japan, and Ethiopia-to turn plastic waste into a growing collection of beautiful, handmade PET Lamps. Inspired by Aboriginal art, Catalán de Ocón recently travelled to Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory, to work with eight indigenous Yolngu weavers. As with his previous projects alongside traditional crafts people, Catalán de Ocón arrived to Bula’Bula Arts Centre in Ramingining without a predetermined plan for how the lamps would look. Instead, he gave freedom to the talented weavers who began to produce large structures inspired by traditional Yolngu mats.