Pulse
‘Water’
We seek a pulse or a heartbeat when looking for signs of life. Like a city of small beacons, or a landscape of electrically linked neurons, the fluctuating glow of Vera Möller’s installation cajalia 2019 mimics the interconnected aerial roots of mangroves as they reach up from the river’s edge.
Vera Möller / Germany/Australia b.1955 / cajalia 2019 installed for ‘Water’ at GOMA, February 2020 / Modelling material and acrylic / Courtesy: The artist and Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane / © Vera Möller / Photograph: J Ruckli, QAGOMA
Between land and sea, as well as between each other, coordinated signals allow us to relay information effectively, to make new and unexpected connections. Michael Candy imagines Little Sunfish — the submersible robot originally designed to monitor the damaged Fukashima Daiichi nuclear reactor — escaping to travel the ocean. Curious and friendly, the robot meets different forms of underwater life, inadvertently spreading radiation before its final journey up Tallebudgera Creek, near Candy’s home.
Tacita Dean’s 16mm film Disappearance at Sea 1996 focuses on the revolving beam of a lighthouse as dusk falls. As well as being a warning of danger, each pulse of light sent out over the water is a potential connection, communicating to strangers.
List of works: Pulse
