7 May 2022 | New Scientist | 31Creative juice
FROM its pure essence to its
significance in culture and society,
water takes on rousing and
inventive forms in these artworks
from Our Blue Planet: Global
visions of water, an exhibition
at the Seattle Art Museum in
Washington. The show explores
one of the world’s most crucial
resources through more than
80 artistic interpretations.
At top left is a still from The Boat
People by Tuan Andrew Nguyen.
Shot in the Philippines, the film
follows five children as they travel
by sea, collecting objects. At top
right is The Garden of Earthly
Delights V, Raqib Shaw’s mixed-
media depiction of mystical
underwater creatures, inspired by
Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.
The bottom row shows (left to
right): Nooksack, a sculpture by
Claude Zervas made from wire and
cold-cathode fluorescent lamps
that mimics the form of the
Nooksack river in Washington
state; Mirage 24 by Adrienne Elise
Tarver, part of her watercolour
series of nude women lounging
and swimming in tropical
environments; and Mask of
Kumugwe’ (Chief of the Sea), an
alder and red-cedar-bark mask
made around 1880 by the
Kwakwaka’wakw Indigenous
peoples of the Pacific Northwest
coast, whose culture and
traditions are centred on
the natural environment.
Our Blue Planet is on display
at the Seattle Art Museum until
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