(Nature In) Lockdown Exhibition: Ocean Totems
Strands of seaweed, horseshoe crabs, shells, broken glass–ocean and human debris–the viscosity of salt water teeming with life–ebb and flow. When animals left the ocean for land, they took the sea with them. Our veins carry the same mixture of sodium, potassium and calcium as sea water. The ocean is our origin.
My hands forage for what the sea gives. I create prints to express its marvels.
A few of my palladium prints that I created from camera-less negatives of these sea fragments are part of an online exhibition https://fayddigital.com/Nature-in-lockdown published by this online magazine which works at the intersection of art, design and the environment.
In July and August I participated in an artist residency at the School of Visual Arts. Through my installations I was able to share my awe for the fragility and delicacy of the creatures that inhabit our oceans. The response to my installation was one of curiosity and care. Our primordial origins are in the oceans and reside in our consciousness.
In my installation at the School of Visual Arts this summer, I found ways to reflect on our connections to the oceans and the life forms within it. I focused on seaweed and horseshoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs are described as living fossils, having changed little since they first appeared in the Triassic period, about 250 million years ago. They face declining numbers due to climate change and that they are hunted for their unique blue blood, valuable for testing vaccines.
I have collected seaweed at the intertidal zones of the Atlantic Ocean at the coast of the Gulf of Maine and along Brooklyn’s ocean front. In the palladium prints for the installation, I have included our human presence with our legs, hands, and faces.
