Over 70 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans. Vast expanses of blue sea do a lot more than offer aesthetic backgrounds for beach photography. Oceans make the earth habitable; they give us more than half of our global oxygen supply. They regulate the climate and absorb over 25 per cent of the carbon dioxide we produce. Art For Your World, a series led by Artwise Curators in partnership with WWF, engages with the art world to address the ongoing nature and climate crisis. This year, their focus, in collaboration with Sotheby’s, is on the oft-neglected subject of ocean health, which they explore through the project Art For Your Oceans (AFYO).
AFYO’s ambassador artists, Emma Talbot and Harland Miller, recently joined a WWF UK-led research trip to the Isle of Skye and Oban in Scotland, where they were introduced to the seaweed farming industry and learned about its role in future ocean health and climate mitigation. The trip was documented extensively, resulting in a series of videos produced by STIR.
Artist Emma Talbot speaks about her response to joining a WWF UK research trip to the Isle of Skye and Oban in Scotland. Video: Courtesy of STIR
Working in drawing, painting, animation and sculpture, Talbot’s work tackles a wide range of issues – from feminist theory and the representation of elderly or ageing women to ecopolitics and the natural world. Discussing her participation in the project, she said, "The prospect of learning more about seaweed - its properties and potential uses, really intrigued me. My research has previously been bound to earthly terrain – to extend it to ocean health and conservation was literally opening another realm.”
Artist Harland Miller gives us a glimpse into his studio whilst talking about his involvement in Art For Your Oceans. Video: Courtesy of STIR
For both the curators and the artists, seaweed ink was a new and fruitful discovery. OCEAN INK® is the first sustainable and fully biodegradable water-based ink derived from sustainably sourced seaweed in the world. Its manufacturers, Oceanium, develop and make functional seaweed-based ingredients for food, health and materials. The ink serves as a replacement to traditional solvent-based inks in luxury textiles, printing and packaging, mitigating the issue of water pollution. Miller, who works in both visual arts and writing, is known for his photo-realistic paintings and prints of Penguin book covers. Miller was working on a series of single and double-letter paintings, with words like “no” and “if”, when he began working with seaweed ink. He was already aware of the restorative properties of seaweed; about ten years ago, specialists in an Austrian clinic used seaweed to help Miller recover from heavy metal poisoning. “I was completely unaware of how many other things you could do with and make out of seaweed. …The thing that I was most interested in as an artist was seaweed ink. Being aware of how harmful certain mediums can be, the idea of using a medium which is 100 per cent organic, it’s just really conducive to this idea of art as a free activity…unrestricted by having to wear a mask, gloves and a hazmat suit,” he said in a video interview.
Art For Your Oceans, working with seaweed ink, 2024. Image: Courtesy of OCEANIUM, Ocean Rainforest, Seaweed Solutions and SAMS Marine Science
The London-based curatorial collective helming the project, Artwise Curators, has previously worked with WWF on Art For Your World (2020) and Tomorrow’s Tigers (2018-2022). They have always endeavoured to build innovative alliances between artists and environmental experts. In a video message, Artwise Director Laura Culpan said, “[Artists] care about the future of the planet and they have this incredible ability to look at things in a very different way and communicate in a very different way…They allow you a different entry point into our worlds.”
Echoing Culpan’s aspirations for the project, Talbot found her work evolving after her trip to the Isle of Skye, where she visited a seaweed farm and learned about the steps involved in growing, extracting and processing seaweed for a wide range of uses. Returning to her studio, she began to incorporate seaweed ink into her work. “It’s interesting to consider the ways [in which] artistic practices can adapt to the urgencies and emergencies of their times, as well as raising awareness of the efforts that are being made to forge a viable future,” she said.
Mollie Gupta, Seaweed Solutions Project Manager at WWF-UK, talks about the importance and versatility of seaweed in bringing our oceans back to life and tackling the climate crisis. Video: Courtesy of STIR
AFYO highlights the potential of seaweed for human, animal and industrial consumption, especially in an age of dwindling environmental resources. Mollie Gupta, Seaweed Solutions Project Manager at WWF UK, emphasises that seaweed could transform food systems, helping us rethink “the way that we connect our land, fresh water and seas.” The benefits of seaweed are two-pronged; grown in UK waters, they could contribute to restoring marine biodiversity, and on being harvested, seaweed can be transformed into a range of innovative products.
AFYO aims to raise funds and build awareness, foregrounding crucial ocean conservation programmes in the UK and beyond. It includes a sale of donated works during London’s Frieze Week in October 2024, in collaboration with Sotheby’s London. To support future ocean health initiatives, an exhibition of new works that address ocean conservation efforts is planned for the near future. Without the oceans, the earth could be up to 35 degrees Celsius hotter, making it impossible to survive. In times of rapid climate change, with heat waves and flash floods becoming a regular occurrence around the world, the earth’s five oceans play an invaluable role.
WWF-UK x Artwise commissioned STIR to produce four short films for their series 'Art For Your Oceans', which engages with the art world to address the ongoing nature and climate crisis. The films are scripted and produced by Samta Nadeem, Curatorial Director, STIR.
