A visual arts and science engagement project by India based artist and researcher Sonia Mehra Chawla with the North Sea and its coastal and marine ecosystems. This body of work is a contribution to our empathetic understanding of the oceans, their significance as an ecosystem, their vitality and ability to support and sustain all life, the role they play to enable the movement of humans and non-humans and their poetic reflections in contemporary culture.

This project is the result of a three-year period of research and collaboration facilitated by Edinburgh Printmakers and supported by Marine Scotland, Prof. Colin Moffat, Creative Scotland and ASCUS Art & Science through intensive artist residencies at Marine Laboratory of the Scottish Government in Aberdeen, Edinburgh Printmakers and ASCUS Laboratory in Summerhall, Edinburgh in 2019.

In addition, the multi-media exhibition has been informed by the artists’ field visits to Aberdeen, Fraserburgh, Peterhead and Stonehaven on the north east coast of Scotland, National nature reserves, nature conservation sites and protected natural habitats in Aberdeenshire as well as the intertidal zones of the Firth of Forth, the estuary or firth of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth, which flows into the North Sea.

Working at the intersection of art, science and technology, exploring entanglements of ecology, industry, culture, politics and aesthetics, the body of work includes new commissions in print, along with videos, ‘living’ systems, archival scientific materials and historical objects.

The exhibition is presented as part of Edinburgh International Science Festival 2021, and Edinburgh Art festival 2021.The exhibition is further supported by The City of Edinburgh Council.

Entanglements of Time & Tide is presented in two interconnected parts:


An image from the series ‘Drifters & Wanderers: Plankton Chronicles I’, photomicrograph

Part 1

ENTANGLED LIVES
“As contamination changes world-making projects, mutual worlds—and new directions—may emerge.” - Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Our planet depends on the vitality of the ocean to support and sustain it. Polluted, overfished and threatened by extractive forces, the largest living space on Earth is rapidly declining. Human-induced environmental change threatens multi-species endurance, live-ability and continuity. We are all interconnected by shared ecologies and entanglements with our other than human kin make life possible. Can humans and other species continue to inhabit the Earth together? How do we determine the way forward?

The Scottish aquatic environment is among the most diverse in the world supporting over 6,500 complex and 40,000 single cell species of plants and animals in inshore waters alone. This incredible environment includes rivers, lochs, estuaries, coastal waters and offshore waters and is home to many distinctive habitats and iconic species such as basking sharks, over twenty species of marine mammals and internationally important bird populations.

In addition, looking at the mysterious and enigmatic life of planktons provides several entry points to understanding larger global issues associated with the world's oceans in these troubled times. Phytoplankton play an essential and integral role in moderating the Earth's climate. Plankton form the basis of the marine food chain and provide fifty percent of the ocean's oxygen. Variations and alterations in ocean circulation and water temperature both critically influence which phytoplankton survive, and which perish. Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community. Through their consumption and processing of phytoplankton and other food sources, zooplankton play a role in aquatic food webs, as a resource for consumers on higher trophic levels (including fish). In addition to linking primary producers to higher trophic levels in marine food webs, zooplankton also play an important role as “recyclers” of carbon and other nutrients that significantly impact marine biogeochemical cycles, including the biological pump.

Entanglement is a fundamental aspect of all life. In a time of urgency, we require cross-disciplinary inquiries about these endangered ecosystems and microbial worlds that will open up curiosities about the multispecies amalgamations that constitute our worlds. However, all symbiosis in nature whether obligatory or facultative is vulnerable, and symbiotic relations with others must be continually re-energized and negotiated within life’s entangled frameworks. Drawing on the work of evolutionary theorist, biologist and science author Lynn Margulis and animal physiologist and biochemist Prof. Margaret McFall-Ngai, and working with environmental samples and living material from the North Sea and its tidal zones, as well as archival historical scientific material, the project explores and imagines an oceanic worldview of entangled histories, symbiotic relationships and contaminations, exploring creative tools for imaging collaborative survival in a more-than-human Anthropocene, and inspiring us to look at all life in novel and meaningful ways.

Part II
GHOSTS & RESIDUES


Images from ‘The Afterlives: Rising into Ruin’, lithographs on archival paper

“Without stories of progress, the world has become a terrifying place. The ruin glares at us with the horror of its abandonment. It’s not easy to know how to make a life, much less avert planetary destruction. Luckily there is still company, human and not human. We can still explore the overgrown verges of our blasted landscapes - the edges of capitalist discipline, scalability, and abandoned resource plantations. We can still catch the scent of the latent commons - and the elusive autumn aroma.”
- Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Humans have actively colonised and modified the Earth’s surface, progressively developing more sophisticated devices and technologies. Livability in its broadest sense, not just for humans, but for all of life on Earth, is being challenged by the industrial ecologies we have brought into being. We live in an era of accelerating technological change, and with it, accelerated rates of obsolescence. These technofossils we leave behind- the material residues of the technosphere, driven by human aspirations, tenacity, and transmitted cultural memory-will create a distinct mark on the planet.

The North Sea has long been important as one of Europe’s most productive fisheries. It also serves as a prominent shipping zone among European countries and between Europe and the Middle East. A third aspect of economic importance has been the extensive reserves of petroleum and natural gas discovered beneath the seafloor.

Aberdeenshire ports account for around half of UK fish landings. Peterhead is one of the UK’s most versatile ports, providing all-weather, congestion-free deepwater berthing facilities and serving a broad range of industries including oil and gas, renewables, fishing and leisure. It is the largest fishing port in Europe and an important base for servicing a varied range of commercial traffic. Fraserburgh is the UK's main Nephrops (Atlantic Prawn) port. Aberdeen Harbour is one of the UK’s busiest ports. It plays a vital role in the global oil and gas industry and has been Europe's premier port for the industry for more than 50 years. Aberdeen Harbour’s South Harbour expansion is the largest marine infrastructure project underway in the UK.

The petroleum industry in Aberdeen began with the discovery of significant oil deposits in the North Sea during the mid-20th century. Aberdeen became the centre of Europe's petroleum industry. With the largest heliport in the world and an important service ship harbour port serving offshore oil rigs, Aberdeen is often called the "Oil Capital of Europe". Today, reserves are still flowing fast, but it has been estimated that the North Sea is nearing or has even surpassed its peak production rate. As a result, Aberdeen is expected to have to redevelop itself as a research and development hub, rather than a base for offshore drilling. There is an effort to rebrand the city as the ‘Energy Capital of Europe’ rather than ‘Oil Capital of Europe’; technology transfer from oil into renewable energy and other industries is under way. Colossal infrastructures, oil rigs and platforms, are slowly disappearing from the North Sea. Over the next three decades, thousands of sub-sea wells will be plugged, and hundreds of oil and gas production platforms detached, dismantled and removed from the storm-tossed North Sea, as they approach the end of their operational lifetime.

During a research visit to Aberdeen and Fraserburgh in 2018, the artist explored the ruins of defunct marine infrastructure, decommissioned maritime objects, derelict grounds, ghost landscapes and cast-off redundant objects and items of scrap from the oil and gas extraction industry; residues that embody a set of historical and temporal paradoxes. The rust and dust on the encrusted objects draws into focus the loss of use value- where the objects worth is realized only in the process of consumption- and the disintegration and dissolution of the aura, while the oxidising, crumbling, putrefying and transforming power of nature slowly creates entirely new forms.

While the ruins are residues of, and gateways into the past, their decline a palpable and tangible reminder of the slippages and passages of time, the ruin also propels us forward in time. The ruined resources of the bygone era, enable a reimagining of future scenarios and environments. These sites of ruination establish a framework for dialogues about our built-environment, decay, regeneration and notions of progress in a shifting cultural, social and economic climate, investigating alternate modes of envisioning our relation to industrial pasts and indefinite futures. We slowly uncover a complex discursive arena out of which meaningful connections and relations to decay and renewal in the Capitalocene might be forged and established. Is it possible to mobilize a sense of possibility and activity within this very terrible time that we have created?


BIOGRAPHY


Born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Sonia Mehra Chawla received her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts (BFA) in 2001, and Master's Degree in Fine Arts (MFA) in 2004 from Delhi University's College of Art, New Delhi, India. Chawla has an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, photographer and researcher. Her artistic practice explores notions of selfhood, nature, ecology, sustainability and conservation. She is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the National Award for Painting, Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, India (2004). Mehra Chawla received a fellowship and grant in the field of visual arts from Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) and British Council India in 2014. Furthermore, Chawla is a fellow and awardee of the International Art+ Science programme instituted by Khoj International Artists' Association and Wellcome Trust UK/DBT India Alliance (2017-18). Chawla was awarded a long term International fellowship and residency in the area of Social Sciences by Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany, for the art, science and business program of the akademie. (2019-22)

Mehra Chawla has participated in curated projects at several International Museums and Institutions such as the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, Germany, British Council, New Delhi, Essl Museum of Contemporary Art, Klosterneuberg, Austria, ZKM | Museum & Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany, Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China, Tate Modern, London, UK, Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi, India, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China, CSMVS Museum Mumbai, India (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India), Goethe-Institut Mumbai, India and Albertina Modern, Vienna.

Chawla has participated in Community Art Projects at Khoj International Artists Organization, New Delhi, from 2004 to 2007, and public art projects at ET4U Contemporary Visual Art Projects, Denmark, in 2013 and 2017. She was invited as an International artist and speaker for SCAD Define Art 2013, organized by SCAD Museum and SCAD University Hong Kong. She has been a speaker and panellist at Charles Wallace India Trust's Awardees Seminar at British Council Mumbai in 2015. She was an invited speaker and panelist on 'art, ecology and preservation' for Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai, curated by Ranjit Hoskote & Asad Lalljee in 2016. Furthermore, Chawla was invited to give a lecture presentation on her interdisciplinary artistic research and practice at 'IIT Cognitalks', the annual seminar of the Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar, Gujrat in 2018, and at Marine Scotland's seminar series at the Marine Laboratory of the Scottish Government in Aberdeen in 2019.

Chawla's solo exhibitions include 'Entanglements of Time & Tide', Edinburgh Printmakers in collaboration with Marine Scotland, Creative Scotland and ASCUS Art & Science Edinburgh (2021), (UN)Containable Life, a comprehensive solo spanning a decade of artistic practice, 1x1 Art Gallery, Dubai (2020-21), 'Critical Membrane', Exhibit 320, New Delhi; curatorial adviser to the project: Ranjit Hoskote (2017), 'Scapelands', Exhibit 320, New Delhi in collaboration with British Council India and Charles Wallace India Trust (2015), 'Scapelands', Tarq, Mumbai, in collaboration with British Council India and CWIT (2015), The Embryonic Plant & Otherworlds, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hongkong (2013), 'Metamorphosing Female', Beck & Eggeling International Fine Arts, Dusseldorf, Germany (2011), and 'Urban-Biomorphic', curated by Dr Alka Pande, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, (2008).

Chawla's Selected Group Participations and Projects include: 'Driving the Human' at Radialsystem, Berlin presented by ZKM | Museum & Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Forecast Berlin, and Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany (2021), Edinburgh Art Festival 2021, Edinburgh International Science Festival 2021, Fragile Kinships, Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi (2019), 'The Undivided Mind', Khoj International Artists Association, supported by Wellcome Trust UK/DBT India Alliance (2018), 'Eine Welt in der Stadt : zoologische und botanische Gärten = A world in the city : zoological and botanic gardens', curated by Kaiwan Mehta, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ifa Galerie, Stuttgart, Germany (2017), 'Planes of Experience, Zones of Action', curated by Kaiwan Mehta, Gallery MMB, Goethe-Institut Mumbai (2017), 'On slippery grounds', ET4U Contemporary Visual Art Projects, Denmark (2017), 'For An Image Faster Than Light', Yinchuan Biennale 2016, curated by Bose Krishnamachari, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China, 'Ein Baum Ist Ein Baum Ist Ein Baum' curated by Prof. Dr. Herwig Guratzch and Kirsten Nordahl, Beck & Eggeling, Dusseldorf, Germany (2015-16), 'The Wave Project' curated by Klavs Weiss and Karen Havskov Jensen, ET4U Contemporary Visual Art Projects, Denmark, Scandinavia (2013), 'What Rules?' curated by Deeksha Nath , Nature Morte, Berlin, Germany (2012), 'The Secret Life of Plants: Contemporary perspectives from India, China and Iran', curated by Maya Kovskaya, Exhibit 320, New Delhi (2012), 'India Awakens: Under the Banyan Tree' curated by Alka Pande, ESSL Museum of Contemporary Art, Klosterneuberg, Austria (2011), 'Global/Local: Time and Space in Contemporary Indian Art', curated by Stefan Wimmer, Henn Galerie, Munich, and Beck and Eggeling International New Quarters, Dusseldorf (2010), 'Lo Real Maravilloso: Marvelous Reality' curated by Sunil Mehra, Gallery Espace, New Delhi (2009), 'Re-Claim / Re-Cite / Re-Cycle', curated by Bhavna Kakar, Galerie Bose Pacia (2009), 'The Second Sex: India', 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hongkong (2008), 'Identity and Masquerade: Staging the Self', multimedia project, directed by Anne Braybone, Tate Modern, London (2006-07), 'CC: Crossing Currents: Video Art & Cultural Identities, Indo-Dutch Video Art Exhibition', curated by Yohan Pinajjpel, Lalit Kala Akademi in collaboration with Royal Netherlands Embassy and Mondriaan Foundation (2004).

Chawla has participated in several International Art Fairs such as Sydney Contemporary 13, Carriageworks, Australia in 2013, Art Basel, Hong Kong in 2013, ART HK: Hong Kong International Art Fair in 2009 and 2010, India Art Fair, New Delhi, India Art Summit, New Delhi in 2011 & 2009, Art Cologne 2009, Germany, and SH Contemporary 08, Shanghai in 2008. She was invited for Project Stage Asia Pacific, the curated section of Art Stage Singapore in 2011.

Published critiques include essays and texts authored by Nancy Adajania, Ranjit Hoskote, Dr Alka Pande, Dr (Prof.) Herwig Guratzch, Kaiwan Mehta, Heather Davis, Deeksha Nath, Veeranganakumari Solanki and Maya Kovskaya.