Ear of the Sea and other Stories

The work explores the strandline, as material, model and metaphor to understand our relationship with the ocean.  The project was nominated for the NOVA 2024 award for work that pushes the boundaries of creativity, innovation and technology, and shortlisted for the Maison/0 This Earth Award that celebrates the power of artistic practice to advocate for nature.

 

In my installation a large willow sculpture hovers above the space communicating with groups of tentacles, larval forms and visitors. Through audio you can hear the chorus of sea urchins recorded at dusk. Our understanding of the sea is accelerating at an unprecedented pace and I imagine a language between human and non-human agents. This work is accompanied by a spoken word performance Strandline Deposition.

 

Storms wash up hundreds of starfish, sea urchins and piles of lemony horn wrack, both the composition of the strandline and it’s changing position are evidence of climate breakdown. This is nature ‘representing itself’. By listening to the needs of the sea, we can find nature-based responses to flooding.