Northern Lights Below the Sea

underwater video Stills from my plankton pursuits in NFLD

It is really hard to try to explain why I can be captivated with the bottom end of the food chain. I have done my best to focus on life in the Grand Banks, and hope my artwork can illuminate some issues for a better future there. The bottom of the food chain is our future as well. It is hard to imagine that all of the red that you see above may be the saving grace for life on this planet. Scientists believe that plankton may offset global warming. My other friend, the sea butterfly is a indicator as well, but they face possible extinction in under 50 years due to the rising acidity in the ocean. They will no longer be able to produce their minute shells. Clione Limacina, my Arctic dwelling Naked Sea Butterfly/Sea Angel that is featured in my video would loose the lesser sea butterfly as a food source; the Baleen whale in turn would loose the Sea Angel/Naked Sea Butterfly. So basically we are screwed. Some scientists believe that if we can artificially increase numbers of plankton, we can turn around the food chain and save our own tails.

If you look at the three clear white shapes in the bottom image, they are Pleurobrachia pileus, or the Sea Gooseberry that have arrived on the scene to dine on the glut of surging plankton.

OK enough for the Easter Sunday Science lesson...

Planktonic Seas

"Where there's life, there's hope." -Terence

This week I have been wading through over a hundred DVDs that I made in Newfoundland. I realized that I have yet to really relax and view most of them. So that will be the ongoing project...trying to figure out what exactly I have captured and why. The what is always easier than the why.

Planktos Reinstalled

A few months back you may recall my adventures in the windswept north eastern Atlantic ocean. I was lost in the changes of the ocean and captivated by the vertical migration of comb jellies, naked sea butterflies and zoo plankton. Not to mention the bubblegum pink krill. Although I feel a world away from that as I stumble through the streets of NYC, I realized that I have the sea right here with me in the form of 125 videos and these cork, silk, bone and cotton constructions that I gave the Greek name 'Planktos' to. You may remember that they were a part of the environmental show that I was a part of at Eastern Edge Gallery in Newfoundland. When the original piece sold, I found myself desperate to try to find the nearly obsolete cork floats that were one time a staple there. Cork is gone, we have destroyed the cork trees and now plastic sits in it's place. The original cork I found under the slipway tangled in a 50 fathom Herring net. It was my secret haunt between the tides and also between prying glances of one of the other artists who decided that whatever I began collecting, she would as well. So I had to sneak about and show only my trusted comrades Aleks and Grant as well as my 10 year old neighbor boy. I mean only the most trusted friends will appreciate me showing up at their door with a bucket of cod skulls, some mermaid's purses and a variety of flotsam. Ah those were the days. The rain in NYC leaves me wishing that I was watching the crashing waves, but for now I will sleep beneath my Planktos mobile.

Planktos

Still of Sea Butterfly from video titled, Planktos by Anna Peach, 2007



Planktos, the wanderer set afloat in sea rainbows
invisible on the surface, but seen through submerged eyes.
Predators in their midst, disguised as water.
Child drawn monsters in white crayon on infinite blue.
Circulating hemispheres mimicking the wind
Life’s foundation floating above solid ground.
Krill blizzards excited energy in ephemeral space,
making pink haze in red tides.
Jellyfish, thimble sized berries engaged in drifting warfare
showing casualties in their transparency.