Benthic Lungs reframes the diver’s tank as an interface within a liquid economy of objects, images, and bodies. Semi-translucent and loaded with everyday artefacts, it resembles what Steyerl calls “circuits of junk”—flows in which desire, waste, and identity collapse into one another. The tank becomes a container for circulating debris rather than air, exposing the unstable infrastructures that mediate contemporary life. In this suspended interior, Benthic Lung gestures toward a submerged condition where bodies, technologies, and cultural residues drift in perpetual, uncertain motion.
Benthic Lungs, 2026, silicone, rubber, pvc, resin, steel mount, collected and cast objects including vapes, iphone, chargers, fake cigarettes, fake veneers, fake chips, press on fingernails, jaw strengthener, implants…
Commissioned for the Aotearoa Art Fair Sculpture Trail, exhibited on the Viaduct Harbour, with huge thank you to Sue Weymouth, Viaduct Harbour and the Auckland City Council