Mal de Mer
Mal de Mer
video, 40 minutes
2017
Over the course of one year, the artist threw a gopro camera under the Sturdies Bay dock on Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada. The camera captures a shifting underwater Salish seascape — life forms changing in symbiosis with the seasonal weather, currents, and fluctuations in life-cycle of marine organisms. Enhanced by the accompanying soundscape (composed by Graham Meisner), the camera’s point of view takes on something akin to a creature swimming through this habitat, even though the perspective is entirely mechanical (that of the underwater camera). The initial impetus of the work was a meditation on the fragility of the world’s oceans in light of anthropogenic change. Without references to how this area looked in the past, the waters appear marvelously abundant in life, although humans’ presence is heavy. The original soundscape was dominated by the sound of ferries coming and going, creating much underwater turbulence and noise. What is captured on video is sea life having adapted to human industry — a kind of eco-romantic ruin.