Disgorged by the Ocean into a Liminal Vastness

In winter months the North West coast of the Olympic Peninsula is lashed by roiling storms out of remote regions of the Pacific. During this time, the detritus of the deep ocean is washed up in vast tangled fields of kelp, bone, and plastic. These mats are prowled by bears and seabirds, who pick at the refuse. Worn and bleached, plastic and bone are often indistinguishable in the grey winter light.

As part of the project, our team traveled to these rugged shores to collect marine debris and create a luminous simulacrum. Interwoven with donated ghost nets and LED lights, sculptural leviathans out of the depths of our collective unconscious form and dissolve in the tangled nylon netting.

Brightly shining from within, the installation imagines the tangible reality of ocean pollution as the dreamscape of our civilization. Gently breathing, the assemblage is both the physical and psychological flotsam of interconnection.