KELP STAR

The work is the result of site-specific research into kelp conducted during a two-day field study of underwater kelp forests, in collaboration with a marine biologist, as part of the Lofoten International Art Festival in September 2019.
The work is inspired by the spherical affinities between kelp and stars. Like a star floating in space, held by gravity and cosmic pressure, underwater kelp has no roots but is suspended in moving water by a simple holdfast. Both exist through a constant negotiation with surrounding forces—stars shaped by invisible balances of fusion and gravity, kelp by tides, currents, and light.
Light defines both stars and kelp in opposite yet connected ways: stars emit it, while kelp reaches toward it, absorbing sunlight to transform carbon dioxide into sugars. Like constellations forming a forested canopy in the night sky, kelp forests create vertical, layered environments underwater, bringing structure and orientation to otherwise inhospitable spaces.
Both stars and kelp embody time on different scales—cosmic and ecological. Kelp, belonging not to the plant kingdom but to protists, draws nutrients directly from the water, functioning almost as an atmospheric crop, sustained by its environment rather than rooted in it. As a keystone organism, kelp supports entire marine ecosystems, yet rising sea temperatures and climate change threaten its ability to persist, placing ocean biodiversity at risk and revealing the fragility shared by both stellar and submerged forests.
 
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