That Sinking Feeling
Motorwerk, Berlin, 2025
DESCRIPTION:
That Sinking Feeling explores the intersection of climate change, cartography, and materiality, transforming scientific flood predictions into eerily beautiful sculptural vessels. Initially sparked by a collaboration with Depeche – an alternative golf magazine – which investigated the impact of rising sea levels on historic links courses: ‘Sandwich’, ‘St Andrews’, and ‘Portmarnock’. The project evolved beyond the sport, focusing on the broader and more urgent crisis of coastal erosion and land loss.
Each ceramic vessel originates from the outline of land projected to be regularly submerged by flooding in 2050. By rendering these flood maps in three-dimensional form, the works disrupt the familiar, abstracting 2D climate data into organic, hybrid structures – part plant, part sea creature, part human. The vessels themselves hold water, mirroring the land they represent: places that, in time, will no longer be able to hold back the rising tides.
Materially, the sculptures echo the fragile landscapes they reference. The raw, textured clay evokes eroding shorelines, while smooth, oil-slick glazes hint at fossil fuel-driven destruction. The contrast between rough and refined surfaces reflects the tension between natural processes and human interference.
These works do not simply mourn loss; they challenge us to see beauty in transformation and to confront the climate crisis with both urgency and imagination. There is an eeriness to them, but also a quiet resilience, a reminder that, even in the face of submersion, all is not lost.
© 2026 Naomi Blundell Meyer