Artist Otobong Nkanga highlights the cost of deep-sea resource extraction  

Around four degrees Celsius, pitch-black, and unbearable pressures — the ocean’s bathypelagic zone seems inhospitable.  

Yet, life persists in what is more commonly known as the midnight zone, an ocean area 1,000 to 4,000 meters below sea level. In Unearthed – Midnight (2021), currently on view on the fourth floor, multidisciplinary artist Otobong Nkanga transports viewers underwater into the transition to the midnight zone, the background of the 11 x 18-foot tapestry a gradual gradient from light to dark blue. This underwater scene is filled with multi-coloured jellyfish and air bubbles.  

Aquatic life is not the only thing adapting to the conditions in the midnight zone. Humans are also present at these depths in deep-sea mining, adapting technology to extract minerals from the ocean floor. While the nature and location of deep-sea mining renders it unseen, in this work, Nkanga brings visibility to the exploitation of underwater resources.  

Resource extraction foregrounds the tapestry — a large fishnet spans much of it and two orange ropes suspend vertically into the midnight zone, each carrying what looks like clusters of minerals. Another rope crosses the scene horizontally, hands and spears resembling fishing lures attached to it. The hands on the rope look rusted, two already broken off and slowly disintegrating as they fall to the ocean floor. 

What a wonderful work to base a Walking Chat, or Dot conversation around! Read more in this week’s Foyer, linked HERE.