Fractured Reef, 2019

AN EXPLORATION OF THE FRAGILITY OF OCEAN LIFE IN JUXTAPOSITION WITH PLASTIC FABRICATION AND WASTE

Debuted at the Leon Gallery in Denver Colorado, Fractured Reef challenges the viewer to come to terms with their own presence in the destruction of our oceans.

Constructed with 3D models of 5 different coral species printed in pristine translucent plastic, and reclaimed post-consumer plastic waste, this installation lights up a space – but only when you’re not too close. The detritus always remains lit, but through the use of ultrasonic proximity sensors, when a viewer gets too close to a coral, its light flickers and fades away.

Fractured Reef speaks to our selfish consumption of single use plastic directly contributing to the death of our oceans. In 2016 a single heatwave event caused the destruction of 30% of the Great Barrier Reef. We as humans want to admire the beauty of the oceans as casual tourists, but refuse to reckon with the death we inflict upon them. This installation seeks to visualize, on even a small scale, plastic waste in direct juxtaposition with the beauty of our oceans, and how we as humans are choking to death thousands upon thousands of species a year.

Special thanks to Leon Gallery Denver, Laleh Mehran as curator of the exhibition Outsiders, Marcus Nystrand and the Reef Recovery Initiative for sharing models of existing coral species that were so central to the soul of this project.