The fascinating world of underwater invertebrates and the role they play in carbon storage, has been brought to life in a brand-new visual art exhibition at the University of Exeter entitled “Lair of the Sea Worm: The ocean's hidden architects”.
The fascinating world of underwater invertebrates and the role they play in carbon storage, has been brought to life in a brand-new visual art exhibition at the University of Exeter entitled Lair of the Sea Worm: The ocean's hidden architects.
The exhibition features the work of Exeter based Naomi Hart who has been artist-in -residence on the global research programme ‘Convex Seascape Survey’.
This multi-million-dollar partnership with Convex, Blue Marine Foundation, a charity dedicated to restoring the ocean to health, and the University of Exeter and University of Southampton, has sought to fill knowledge gaps on how the ocean and climate are connected, to inform effective action against the climate crisis.
Bringing together a multidisciplinary team made up of world-class ocean and blue carbon scientists, this ambitious five-year global research programme is the largest attempt yet to build a greater understanding of the properties and capabilities of the ocean and its continental shelves in the earth’s carbon cycle, in the urgent effort to slow climate change
In 2023, Naomi joined a group of world-leading scientists during their field research at the Field Studies Centre, Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland. She accompanied researchers during every part of their trip, from mud grabs in a research vessel, to setting up experiments to monitor the behaviour of benthic invertebrates (organisms which live at the bottom of a body of water) back at the laboratory.
She also spent time collecting sediment from the seabed to create various coloured pigments. With the help of the scientists, she was able to study an array of benthic invertebrates under a microscope, carefully observing them under magnification to reveal the details of their shape and form.
Naomi has now used the sediment collected to create several captivating illustrations of the underwater invertebrates she observed. Each creature has been painted with the very mud in which they live, on delicate paper, unframed, echoing the fragility and vulnerability of the ecosystem.
Through these illustrations, I hope to raise awareness of these incredible creatures and the vitally important habitat they create. The hand-made, sustainably -created materials not only minimise the carbon footprint of the artwork, but also demonstrate the possibilities we have of making active choices in our lives to protect and conserve the ocean.
As well as reproductions of Naomi's works, the exhibition will also feature captivating photography by Dr Adam Porter, a University of Exeter research fellow on the Convex Seascape Survey. His magnified research images of benthic invertebrates in the laboratory could be mistaken for otherworldly landscapes of far-off planets - and yet they are created by the incredible animals in our oceans.
The seabed might not seem very glamorous, but it is abundant with life. Naomi’s bold and informative work brings to life the fascinating and important creatures who live there and the excitement surrounding this pioneering research project. We’re thrilled to see this new exhibition.
You can see ‘Lair of the Sea Worm: The ocean’s hidden architects’ in the Arts and Culture Queen’s Building Display Space (West Wing Foyer of Queen’s Building, next to Camper Coffee) on the Streatham Campus from Monday 16 September to 13 December 2024.
You can also see the original works at Falmouth Art Gallery as part of her exhibition 'SeaBed' which is running there until 5th October 2024. She will also be leading a clay workshop at the gallery on Saturday 28 September from 10am - 1pm.
University of Exeter
Room 153, Queen's Building
The Queen's Drive
Exeter EX4 4QH
