Depicting Dark Waters
2024- ongoing
Glass, Coral skeletons, Aluminium, Steel
Did you know there are Coral Reefs in Europe? A wide array of beautiful, mysterious, ancient, and ecologically vital Corals have been living on our doorstep for millions of years, yet we know barely anything about them. These are animals that thrive in cold, dark waters, often in The Deep Ocean, hidden in places most people never see.
Alice Baker is working to change that. Collaborating with marine biologists from Sweden and the Netherlands, she set out to visualise
some of the most enchanting species of cold-water Coral found locally. These ancient animals can live for over 4,000 years, support thousands
of other marine species, and are crucial to the health of the entire Ocean.
However, they are under serious threat. Every reef we’ve discovered so far is already damaged. Primarily by ‘bottom trawling’, which is a fishing practice where huge nets are dragged along the seafloor destroying everything in their path.
Alice wants us to see these Corals as precious, delicate and worth protecting. She has created lifelike models from glass, a material
historically used for scientific model-making. Recreating a lost craft as intricate and mysterious as the corals themselves, the glass models are displayed in a vitrine inspired by aluminium structures built to study marine life. These glass sculptures are paired with real skeletal samples lent to her by NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research), allowing people without submarines to experience these mesmerising species!
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Gothenburg Ubiversity
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research