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We do not notice the signs of climate change until they are at our doorstep. When jellyfish blooms began clogging filtration systems and negatively impacting the economy, suddenly, people were interested.
I wanted to create a different type of conversation about climate change by creating a speculative future where jellyfish physically invade our land territory.
Floating with the wind, the jellyfish were like weather stations, reflecting the current environmental conditions, just as their activity is in real life.
The shadows created by the jellyfish looked even more life-like.
The largest jellyfish was urgently reinforced throughout its life.
Each jellyfish had a unique temper. The blue was the calmest.
Strong winds threatened to entangle and shred the tentacles.
Even lying on the ground, the mass of plastic and wire looked jellyfish-like!
The first iteration used sticks to create the frames, while the plastic was sewed piece-by-piece directly onto the frame.
The wireframes did not hold a perfect shape and bent themselves into amorphous blobs, surprisingly like jellyfish!
In the next iteration, I enlisted help to sew plastic bags into large sheets that I then formed over the frames of wire.
The tentacles are sewed strips of colorful plastic bags, with texture added by stretching the plastic different directions.
Storing the large masses of plastic turned out to be easy since the materials were fairly resilient.
A trusty ladder and climbing carabiners and knots were key in securing the jellyfish to trees.
For scale, even the smallest jellyfish was almost human length in diameter.