Growing Sculptures

Graduation project for the master study, Ecology Futures, at St.Joost School of Art & Design.

The project seeks to promote interdisciplinary research by combining biology, psychology, and art to enhance social awareness of environmental issues through sculptures. It targets a diverse audience, particularly children to young adults, aiming to reach and educate them. Taking inspiration from eco-anime, the research analyses how realistic environmental themes and folklore can engage younger audiences in addressing climactic issues. I sculpt ceramic habitats for non-human species, exploring sustainable environments.

Currently, two sculptures are installed underwater in Zeeland, The Netherlands, at The Seaweed Company’s shoreline site, and another one in Luderitz, Namibia for The Kelp Forest Foundation`s kelp cultivation site. These textured and hollowed sculptures foster collaborations with living species in seaweed cultivation, creating dynamic bio-inclusive visuals. It is an experiment and stepping stone towards a sustainable future by including non-human-organisms and the imagination of children into an ever growing story.

2022-2024

Graduation exhibition “Hope This () Finds You Well” at St. Joost School of Art & Design.

The installation is a dive into a fantasy underwater spirit realm, inspired by the Korean folktale, Shim Cheong. Similar to the standard aquarium visits as a child, people, especially children, are encourage to stick their head into the dome to get a good look at the aquarium on the inside. There rests a sea dragon king, surrounded by shrimps, snails and other smaller organisms. In the background, a video is projected of a dive in the Norwegian kelp forest, together with short animations of spirits swimming swiftly past.

This ceramic creature works as habitats for non-human species to redefine sustainable environments. This hollowed and textured sculpture collaborate with living species in my aquarium, slowly growing with them and creating new bio-inclusive visuals and stories. It serves as a starting point for alternative creative storytelling, moving away from anthropocentric views towards a pluriverse of ecosystems benefiting from interactions between multiple species, emphasizing plurality, decay, and growth. The sculpture has a whimsical mystical aesthetic to it to engage a younger audience towards creative multi-specie thinking.

This sculpture is a sea dragon inspired by the Korean folktale “The Tale of Shim Cheong”. A story about a daughter who throws herself at sea as a sacrifice for rice and wealth to her blind father. She meets the sea dragon, God of the seas, in the kingdom of Truth. To drown in the deep sea means the death of the existence of oneself. She then opens her mind and becomes “the truth”. The father, now with rice and wealth, learning of his daughter`s sacrifice, becomes depressed. The dragon sends her back in a lotus flower, and as she reunites with her father, the father gains his eyesight. Blindness is seen as a metaphor for being ignorant towards the truth.