A Chair for the Ocean: A Seat for an Absent Presence

2025

Collage and digital art series

Global discourse shapes the future of the ocean, but where is the ocean’s voice at these tables? A Chair for the Ocean imagines what it means to offer the ocean a place to sit in decision making. By anthropomorphising the ocean, this series invites empathy for more-than-human lives affected by climate collapse: ecosystems, species, and communities pushed to the margins.

Each image reframes post-consumer waste like twisted nets, weathered fabric and discarded documents into sculptural assemblages resembling chairs. These seats suggest an unseen presence through absence, hinting at a body submerged or already gone. Restless and agitated, the ocean depicted in these works seems to ask: What does the sea think of post-industrialisation? Chair-like forms become stand-ins for unseen lives. They hold space for grief and resistance - quiet portraits of something (or someone) both witnessing and warning.

This project was generously supported by the Australian French Association for Innovation and Research.