Pool is a reflection on cause and effect, on interconnectivity, and on the fragility and resiliency of tide pools in the threatened intertidal zone. These miniature worlds are created and recreated daily at the border of land and sea, and are besieged on multiple fronts, by nature and by man-made pollutants and the disruptions of industry.
Shot with an underwater camera using a macro lens in the tide pools of northern California, the vivid underwater footage has been edited into seven overlapping “pools” which are then projected from the ceiling onto the floor in dizzying detail. Hanging just beneath the projector, high in the ceiling, is a flat clear dish holding six liters of water. This water is churned intermittently, in synchrony with the recorded sounds of seagulls and mournful foghorns. The concentric ripples disrupt the projection as it passes through the water, creating a disorienting experience as the “live” waves move across the seven pools.
Pool brings the littoral zone, inaccessible to most of the world’s population, to a space just underfoot, allowing visitors to peer down into these watery worlds. Pool asks us to stop and to see, and to pay homage to these microcosmos so essential to our shared future.