Body of Water uses video animation, surround sound and sculptural installation to create an immersive ‘exhibition expedition’. The reminds us we are one with the planet’s water, and imperiled oceans and waterways pose a threat not only to our own survival but that of countless other species. Water is our common ground of being. As Dr. Sylvia Earle says, “No ocean, no us”.

Body of Water began as an artistic expansion on Oceanic Society’s Blue Habits program, and included a partnership with Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and the Woods Institute for the Environment as well as the Stanford School of Design (d.school). In Fall, 2018, we met to create and test tools that addressed ocean conservation as a design challenge. Body of Water is the cultural component of this collaborative effort. Due to COVID, Oceanic Society’s 50th Anniversary event and the concurrent Body of Water exhibition in San Francisco were canceled, and efforts are now underway to reschedule this exhibition.

A stop-motion animation of my paintings surrounds the viewer to create a shapeshifting underwater world. The viewer sees and feels the ‘painting hand’ at work, activating a bodily affiliation with our planet’s oceans and waterways by engaging the sense of touch, proximity and intimacy with aquatic life. Body of Water engages the viewer in a ceremonial space of kinship in order to arouse human action from within.