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I m a g e geometric sculptures made from carefully researched materials which work in harmony with the seascape. The eerie structures were moored to the ocean floor off the coast of southern California in 2016 and were mirrored to “reflect the underwater seascape and create a kaleidoscopic observatory for the viewer” and were large enough so that swimmers could move through them. It was an altogether huge feat.
The designs were intended to put “the local marine environment and the global challenges around ocean conversation in dialogue with the history of art” by calling on the viewer to participate in its protection. Aitken notes: “When we talk about the oceans and we look at the radical disruption we’ve created within the sea, we’re not quite aware yet how much it is going to affect us and our lives on land. The ramifications of that are immense. This is one thing which cannot be exaggerated.” The temporary underwater sculptures, which were hailed as a “new frontier for art”, are due to reopen to the public in a new location soon. The intent is to encourage a sense of wonder. “With such important artworks suddenly living underwater, there is no escape,” adds Gutsch. “One has to dive down to be part of the conversation. Once you are down there, you fall in love with this magic blue universe.”
Aitken also lent his talents to a new Parley project called Ocean Plastic Bags. Aitken, alongside Walton Ford, Jenny Holzer, Pipilotti Rist, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel and Rosemarie Trockel, created designs for a reusable tote bag made from roughly five plastic bottles collected from remote islands by the Parley team. The sale of each bag funds the clean-up of 20 pounds of marine plastic waste. The concept merges creativity with design and, for Gutsch, shows the power that artists have to create a strong message. “When exposing yourself to an artist, you enter such an encounter with an open mind. You want to be provoked, even shocked."
However, environmental activism and awareness through good design is not only the reserve of Parley. As part of Cooper Hewitt’s sixth Design Triennial, a new exhibition on view at the Cube Design Museum in the Netherlands until 2020 celebrates the history of creative collaboration with nature. The work of 62 international design teams is presented, showing partnerships involving scientists, engineers, philosophers and advocates for social and environmental justice. It highlights designers’ strategies to “understand, remediate, simulate, salvage, nurture, augment and facilitate.”
“Nature offers a timely look into how designers are tackling the environmental and social challenges confronting humanity,” Caroline Baumann, Director of Cooper Hewitt, states. “This is not just an exhibition, this triennial is a call to action.” Highlights include an algae-based plastic jacket designed by Charlotte McCurdy that helps absorb carbon and the display of a new material named Lithoplast, which was made by Shahar Livne by mining petroleum-based plastics.
The work that Parley and other creative organisations and individuals are doing makes it clear that the design world is an essential part of the solution to ecological collapse. The once-rigid division between disciplines – art, science, fashion – seems arbitrary in a world where the complex issues of the day need, more than ever, a collaborative approach to solutions. As Thunberg attests: “It is still not too late to act. It will take a far-reaching vision, it will take courage, it will take fierce determination to act now, to lay the foundations where we may not know all the details about how to shape the ceiling. In other words, it will take cathedral thinking.”
Right: Doug Aitken, Underwater Pavilions, 2016. Installation view, Avalon, Catalina Island, CA, Pacific Ocean. Courtesy Line: MOCA Los Angeles and Parley for the Oceans. Image: Shawn Heinrichs.
Words Alexandra Genova www.parley.tv
30 Aesthetica
