 |
| Photo: Christoffer Boström, Åbo Academy |
Save the Seagrass? Who decides? You? Scientists? Politicians? The Market?
Elin Wikström, Contemporary Art Archipelago, Turku, 2011 – 2013
www.contemporaryartarchipelago.fi
The work of Elin Wikström reaches both under and over the surface of the Sea, examining the range of meanings attached to nature, both on the individual and collective realms. On the one hand, Wikström's work focuses on sea grass, an endangered species that plays an important role in the balance of the marine ecosystem. On the other hand, Wikström's work connects homes around the Archipelago Sea region through a plant collection project, which invites people to send indoor plant cuttings to CAA.
The exhibition in the Archipelago Centre Korpoström will present the project in its complexity, weaving together the domestic and collective spheres as well as the local and global dimensions of our investment in nature. For each new houseplant a patch of sea grass will be transplanted locally in a new site in collaboration with Christoffer Boström and other marine biologists of Åbo Akademi University. The artist and the researchers will document the progress of the new plants during the summer 2011 as well as for the next three years. A range of public events will also be organised at Korpoström in connection to the project.
Will the houseplant cuttings on land put down roots? Will the seagrass cuttings take root at the sea floor?
