Specifically the piece addresses the issue of declining shells in the ocean due to global warming and the growing acidity of our seas through industry and pollution. Shells are vital not only to marine life but also to the whole marine ecosystem and further to the whole of the earth’s environments.
The shell, a symbol of life and protection, is subjected to severe environmental change as the cool waters of the ocean give way to destructive fire and baked, smouldering earth. The process returns and repeats itself in the installation, an ongoing reminder of the ecological human made disaster from cool ocean to hot planet.
Parian, marble like ceramic, is used to make the broken shells resonating death, whilst reminding us of the natural beauty of shells. Projections through the ceramic conjure up a sense of organic life within whilst also embodying environmental destruction. The sound work, used also for the sister pieces of Plastic Pisces, carries the imagined cry of the conch, a Hindu symbol of sound underpinning life. Earthwaves partnership http://www.earthwaves.co.uk
Ocean acidification is a growing concern for the future of shell-bearing organisms as the acids in the ocean break apart calcium carbonate, essential for shell creation. This has wide ranging repercussions for the shell bearing creatures themselves to the non-shell bearing organisms that depend on such molluscs as a source of food. The chain reaction begins where fish die, human communities are starved of vital sources of food and industry and the environment is thrown out of balance. Research has estimated that in as little as 10 years the Arctic Ocean could become acidic enough to actively dissolve creatures’ existing shells.
The delicate shells, made of translucent parian, here are illuminated through the ceramic by a video looped projection. Parian has been used to portray cold translucent marble reminiscent of death to make hollow shells beautiful but empty of their living sea creatures.