Narwhal
This life-size handbuilt porcelain narwhal skull comes alive with a video projection, sound, and reindeer moss stuffed silk chiffon tentacles. The narwhal, the mythical unicorn of the sea, whose horn was once worth more than its weight in gold, is still shrouded in mystery on the actual use of its horn. Is it for protection? Communication? Navigation? The decaled subtext spiraled into the horns and the projected video attempt to raise awareness for the narwhal and other endangered cetaceans which are hunted in the thousands each year despite a 1968 moratorium on whaling.
Over 150 souvenir sized slipcast earthenware and soft stuffed narwhals with latex horns swam up the 15′ tall gallery walls and through the space. As the Collective Gallery was also a functioning tattoo business, track lighting during business hours created moving, layered shadows of the narwhals in many sizes on the walls. The souvenir narwhals could be adopted during the exhibition and proceeds benefit the Sea Shepherds Ocean Conservancy as seen on Animal Planet’s Whale Wars. This lighting condition allowed gallery patrons to closely inspect and choose which narwhal to adopt. The walls became increasingly bare over the course of the exhibit as narwhals were adopted and the empty pegs were marked with small labels reading “This narwhal has been rescued.”
The narwhals were illuminated in the evening hours by a video projection of underwater waves with the eerie soundtrack of whale songs.
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The building process.
