Lichen Kelp's practice is most often situated in the aquatic realm. Her work encompasses performance chemistry, photography, sculpture and curation. She performs with Kelp D and runs Forum of Sensory Motion with partner Dylan Martorell. FSM held artist residencies and exhibitions in India in 2014 and 2016 and Greece in 2017. Lichen curated a trilogy of artist roadtrips to Whyalla, South Australia in 2018 and 2019 to witness the mating displays of the Giant Cuttlefish aggregation. In 2019 Lichen curated MULCH; a performance event for Ian Potter Foundation and established the Seaweed Appreciation Society international (SASi), a mobile experimental platform dedicated to the artistic research of marine algae. Luca Lana is a registered architect, lecturer and founder of Q Studios with a focus on queer urban spaces. In 2018 he designed and fabricated a portable sauna launched at MPavillion Monash. The Algalsphere seaweed bath combines SASi’s algae awareness raising with the alchemical, experiential nature of Lichen’s work and Luca’s architectural investigation of public bathing.
Algalsphere
The Algalsphere will be heated using alternative energies, feature a semi-transparent membrane for a private version of public bathing and incorporate kelps and other seaweeds for their bio-mutual regenerative properties. Bathers can choose from a selection of seaweed based waterproofed texts from a small kelp library to read while they soak.
The bath can be easily installed in parks and other outdoor locations around the city, as a standalone destination and as part of public events. The piece will serve to challenge people’s perceptions around uses of public space, give people a gentle, warm and very immersive experience, and introduce people to the multi-faceted world of marine algae. The meditative experience offers bathers a chance to temporarily step out of the thronging city and soak in a personalised warm ocean.
Each iteration will have its own unique live elements, with a sound artist local to each area being commissioned to create an ambient work to perform a live at opening nights and to contribute to an eventual album and online forums. Speakers will also be curated to join the public in the bath for close listening performance lectures.
The Algalsphere appeals to those who are marine bio-curious; open to immersive group learning, algal contemplation and queer ecologies; and willing to playfully expand their notions of environmental art action, ocean philosophy and the wellness of other-than-human entities. Through the sharing of safe harboured waters with othered bodies – both human and algal- the focus shifts from a luxurious, human centric leisure activity to an exercise in closeness and increasing familiarity with the all too oft overlooked organism; seaweed.