Project Overview

Seaweed Arboretum is a suite of 3 installations, exhibited at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum. The exhibition was held in conjunction with the Seaweed Forests Festival, and provided an evocative and immersive marine botanical environment for the month-long program of talks, workshops and events.

The installations, Forest, Flora and Float, draw upon the seaweed forests of Australia’s Great Southern Reef. Forest is an aerial canopy of giant bull kelp sourced from the Southern Ocean; Flora is a series of pressed seaweeds collected from the shores of the eastern and southern coasts; and Float suspends seaweeds gathered from Sydney beaches - viewed against the backdrop of their ocean home immediately beyond the gallery.

The installations honour and celebrate the inherent nature and integrity of the plants themselves. Throughout the process of collecting, sculpting, and installing the works, the seaweeds exerted a defining and determining influence. The installations are, in essence, the expression of a collaboration between artists and marine plant-life.

The poetics of this intra-nature dialogue imbued the festival program. Talks, discussions and workshops were held beneath and within the installations - and explored our interconnected relationship with seaweed through the manifestations of science and climate change; Indigenous culture and knowledge; food and health; art, dance and music.

The exhibition and festival developed out of a long-term collaboration with marine ecologist, Dr Adriana Verges, Associate Professor at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW, and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science (see Operation Crayweed Art Work Site). Artists and scientists are inherently curious and creative, and many share a deep connection to the natural world. Art and science offer different expressions of this connection, that can be both complementary and expansive when combined. In sharing scientific research within these poetic and sensory art environments, seemingly separate systems of knowing are cross-fertilised to foster a more open and receptive understanding for all.

This project was supported by NSW Government My Community Grant and Australian Kelp Products

Forest

Seaweed Arboretum – Forest is one of a suite of 3 installations, along with Flora and Float, exhibited at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum. The exhibition was held in conjunction with the Seaweed Forests Festival, and provided an evocative and immersive marine botanical environment for the month-long program of talks workshops and events.

Forest is an aerial canopy of giant bull-kelp (Durvillea potartorum), suspended from the ceiling in a darkened gallery. Slowly moving light illuminates the vast swathe of dried seaweeds to cast quietly shifting shadows on gallery walls. It is as if the seabed has been inverted - and we drift through the seaweed forest from below, as currents of atmospheric light breathe rhythmic life through the submersive space.

Throughout the exhibition, Forest was both meditative installation and communal ‘habitat’ for many of the festival talks, workshops, music & dance performances held beneath its canopy including:

Awe & Wonder of our Underwater Forests - moderated by Costa Georgiadis with Robert Cooley, Dr Shane Gould, Jennifer Turpin & Dr. Alexandra Campbell;
Seaweed: Victim & Unlikely Hero in the Fight Against Climate Change - moderated by Stephen Oliver with Prof. Tim Flannery, Sahira Bell, Oscar McMahon & Sam Elsom; Seaweeds as Food - moderated by Joanna Saville with Uncle Ken Jones, Gary Fishwick, Dr Libby Swanepoel, Zoe Brittain & Dr Pia Winberg; Innovative Uses of Seaweed through History & into the Future - moderated by Wendy Harmer with Sarah Thomas, Peter Ralph, Professor Nick Paul & Jo Lane; Making the Science Visible & Encouraging Stewardship of our Oceans - moderated by Costa Georgiadis with Melanie Bishop, Dorset Sutton, Ass. Prof. Dr Adriana Vergés & Dr Ezequiel Marzinelli; MAG&M Kids Art Adventures - Seaweed Arboretum; Great Southern Reef student and teacher workshops - Stefan Andrews; Saltwater Country (Garrigarrang Nura) education workshop - Karen Smith; Forest Flowing, music performance - James Brew, composer & Ivan Zhang; Habitat, dance performance - Kate Dunn, choreographer; Emma Grill & Jasmin Lancaster, dancers: Alistair Trung, costume design & Louie Royal, lighting design.

This project was supported by the NSW Government’s My Community Grant, and Australian Kelp Products.