Art-Meets-Science Outreach

Sculpture by the Sea

An art installation celebrating Operation Crayweed, a scientific project to replant forests of seaweed that disappeared from the Sydney coastline in the 1980s, was a feature of the 2016 Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi.

Operation Crayweed Art-Work-Site was a collaboration between artists Jennifer Turpin and Michaelie Crawford, of Turpin + Crawford Studio, and marine scientists from SIMS and UNSW who are carrying out the crayweed reforestation project.

The multi-faceted environmental and community installation included a yellow ‘art work-site’ fence stretching 500 metres along the famous coastal walk between South Bondi and Marks Park, and a yellow navigational buoy anchored just offshore at the site where the scientists have replanted some of the crayweed – a large form of seaweed.

Waverley Mayor, Cr Sally Betts, officially launched the Operation Crayweed Art-Work-Site, saying it would inspire the many people who saw it to think about the environment and the underwater research.

As part of the project, students from nearby schools participated in a series of science and art workshops to learn about crayweed and to make wearable sculptures based on the rich diversity of marine animals that will inhabit the transplanted seaweed forests.