SEAGRASS
Currently on exhibit at art-st-urban Sculpture Park, Lucerne, Switzerland.
Previous: Time Space Existence exhibition, Palazzo Mora, European Cultural Centre, Venice, Italy. 2018

Aluminum, integrated lighting

260 x 182 x 90 cm (8.5' x 6' x 3')

SEAGRASS is an ongoing sculptural investigation of lines derived from natural forms and deployed to create places for the built environment. SEAGRASS, created for TIME-SPACE-EXISTENCE, mediates the beauty of natural structures: how simple, elegant lines in the natural world can shape our built environments. When considering the exhibition theme, the grandeur and the urgent plight of the seagrass pastures come immediately to mind, for their health and continued existence will affect the survival of many species. Restoration efforts have been essential, but it is delicacy and toughness, inherent qualities of the seagrass structure itself, that have enabled this plant to survive as one of the oldest living organisms on the planet. These opposing qualities—fragility and strength—provide a push and pull that inspires this artwork. I am drawn to the majesty of the form, the rhythmic motion created as the tide’s ebb and flow through the grasses, and their vulnerable and persistent forms.

Seagrasses are found in shallow salty and brackish waters in many parts of the world, from the tropics to the Arctic Circle. Seagrasses are so-named because most species have long green, grass-like leaves. They are often confused with seaweeds, but are actually more closely related to the flowering plants that you see on land. Seagrasses have roots, stems and leaves, and produce flowers and seeds. They evolved around 100 million years ago, and today there are approximately 72 different seagrass species that belong to four major groups. Seagrasses can form dense underwater meadows, some of which are large enough to be seen from space…. Seagrasses provide shelter and food to an incredibly diverse community of animals, from tiny invertebrates to large fish, crabs, turtles, marine mammals and birds. Seagrasses provide many important services to people as well, but many seagrasses meadows have been lost because of human activities. Work is ongoing around the world to restore these important ecosystems.

Pamela L. Reynolds, Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Photo credit: Katie McCann for Barbara Grygutis Sculpture LLC, Venice, Italy; and Gertrude Aeschlimann for art-st-urban Sculpture Park, Lucerne, Switzerland.