The Imaginary Sea

The Imaginary Sea confronts the interrelation between the arts, the sciences and the ways in which the modes of exposure of the natural world condition our relation to the subaquatic kingdom, at once dreamlike and endangered. "Far from a wholesale critical condemnation of anthropocentrism, the exhibition seeks to present a balanced, multifaceted perspective of our evolving relationship with the natural world. It operates if not in different temporalities, then, let’s say, different imaginaries. Akin to the emotional range of a Shakespearian comedy – or tragedy –, it intends to evoke joy, mystery, wonder, and, inevitably, melancholy as well as loss. Because, it goes virtually without saying, our relationship to the natural world, especially the sea and its enigmatic and unfathomable contents, is quite complex and fraught. " - Chris Sharp, curator of the exhibition