All the Light Below
Psychedelic Medusa (2022), Michel Droge
March 31 - June 11, 2022
Featured Artist
About The Show
A visit to Katahdin Iron Works, a Maine state historic site of a 19th century ironworks, sparked Michel Droge’s interest in mining and “the appalling beauty of the way we rip into the earth.” This interest led Droge to Bigelow Laboratory and Senior Research Scientist Beth Orcutt, an expert on deep sea ecology and the impacts of human activity. Orcutt’s work includes studying deep sea mining for the rare elements needed in the technology that could curb carbon emissions and energy use.
A collaboration was born. Droge “was really inspired by the combination of rich, mysterious parts of our world plus the incredibly violent kind of excavating that we do to survive on this planet.” And, for Orcutt, the collaboration offered a new way to see and talk about her work and connect to it in an emotional and beautiful way.
As Droge explains, “I didn’t want to do anything representational, but I wanted to draw from the richness and ideas of it all and create a platform where people could talk about the impacts of deep-sea mining. I hope that I create a platform where people can spend time enjoying beauty and light, love and mystery, and also think about and learn more about deep sea mining.”
All the Light Below is the stunning and magical culmination of this collaboration.
