The music helps create the atmosphere of floating, but the banners do the trick. Never mind that one of the windows leads to the street. With the tapestries hung in front of one wall and a stripe of color on the wall opposite them, it’s possible to think of yourself in a submarine — albeit a microscopic one, because the view outside is of plankton.
Until Feb. 29, Artspace’s single-artist gallery houses “Do Plankton Have Feelings?,” a thought-provoking exhibit by Cynthia Beth Rubin, who writes in an informative accompanying statement that “collective care for our global ecosystems can be nurtured through creating empathy for essential oceanic microscopic life.” For Rubin, this meant spending years dedicated to “making the invisible life of plankton visible and accessible. Plankton are an essential part of our ecosystem, they produce over half of the world’s oxygen and are an important link in the food chain.” The New Haven-based artist has done this by working with scientists at the University of Rhode Island, who, she writes, “have supported this project through the exchange of raw data collected from oceans in the North Atlantic, Antarctica, the Pacific Northwest, and Narragansett Bay.”
Rubin used that information to create her plankton tapestries. But rather than simply creating photographic images of them, she sought to capture some of their movement and energy. “These renderings are metaphorically closer to jazz or contact improvisation than classical music or ballet, most likely because they recognize that plankton themselves are always in motion, relatively unpredictable, and frequently collaborating with other organisms.”
Rubin provides an additional layer to the project by supplying a tablet that, when held up to the tapestries, reveal further drawings of plankton, done by participants in workshops held last fall. The participants “ranged from experienced artists and scientists to curious library patrons and staff” at the New Haven Free Public Library, Rubin writes. She led them “through a series of timed exercises, asking them to make sketches of enhanced photographs and videos of microscopic plankton.” In Artspace’s gallery, as you move the tablet across the tapestry, images of the drawings from the workshop rise into view and float away again, almost as if the tablet is a microscope and the drawings are plankton themselves.
“As the invisible is made visible, perhaps you too will feel a bit closer to our organisms that sustain our planet,” Rubin writes. Her viewpoint is vital. Last fall the NOAA predicted a warmer, wetter winter for the country overall. In New Haven that appears to be coming to pass, as the temperature has rarely dipped below freezing and storms that may have created snow in years past are now dropping rain. As the prospects for halting the effects of climate change dim, the leading edge of the conversation has shifted from prevention to adaptation. Part of adaptation involves becoming more aware of the ecosystem as it is, the plants and animals within it that are constantly changing, growing, and moving. Rubin’s playful exhibit thus carries a serious undercurrent. It suggests that having more empathy isn’t just an end in itself; it’s possibly one of the keys to survival.
“Do Plankton Have Feelings?” runs at Artspace, 50 Orange St., through Feb. 29. Visit the gallery’s website for hours and more information.