I construct worlds in which the whales win. Through humor, storytelling, and nostalgia, I reinvent truths, conflate histories, and revise prophecies – the right whale becomes the “right” whale to protect rather than hunt, the endangered humpback goes renegade, and the forgotten sea becomes a hopeless paramour. 

Through comics, poems, handbound books, and soft sculpture, imagery and words are repeated, patterned, and burnished into memory for the viewer’s discovery and de-coding. The viewer at once becomes biologist, archaeologist, and activist through consideration of my work.

With bittersweet, endearing, and deadpan images; scientific illustration and sculpture; and the underlying, horrific possibility of the extinction of the sea, I hope to create awareness of the ocean's global significance. The sea was part of my childhood: it informed my growth, dreams, and lifestyle. I carry it with me now in my subconscious and my heart, and I walk with a mindfulness owed to the tides. The future of the ocean hangs in the balance. Are you willing to die for the whales? 

 

Skylaar Amann 

2011