01 The Sea Level is Rising terracotta, salt glazed

165mm x 150mm x 365mm
2010

This sculpture is part of several cycles of work exploring global change and especially its impact on all life.

Living between the Pacific Ocean and the Hauraki Gulf, I am drawn to the place where land and sea meet. I see orca swimming close to the shore and experience the rhythms of the tides and seasons there.

One day I went to my favorite beach after a major storm. The beach front was destroyed. Sand had been swept away, dunes were eroded and had lost their vegetation and balconies were ripped off seaside houses.

Around this time we were shocked by the devastation caused by tsunamis and hurricanes for people living in fragile coastal areas. I seemed that these were more devastating because of global warming.

I was driven to make work which expressed the passion and frustration I felt at what we are doing to the planet. In this piece we see fish stranded amongst high rise buildings and a human being cradling one of these creatures.

Right now my motivation is not to make decorative art but to use my medium, whether clay or mixed media, to report on what is happening around me.
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