Cleaner (2019) depicts an elderly sea turtle whose shell has been retrofitted with a mechanical apparatus designed to vacuum plastic waste from the ocean before it can be ingested. Part biological, part engineered, the creature embodies a speculative response to the ecological crisis humans have created.

Rather than addressing the root causes of marine pollution, Cleaner imagines a world in which the burden of survival is shifted onto the animals most directly harmed. Piccinini presents this hybrid being with tenderness and dignity, yet the work underscores the ethical tension in proposing “solutions” that further alter vulnerable species instead of addressing human responsibility.

A digital rendering of Cleaner also appears in a new video work Reflections on Ghost Food (2025).