Benthos
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benthos beset blizzard bottom water
benthos
Benthos are life forms that live on the sea floor.
I drew as I watched video footage of Antarctic benthos.
Scientists could name only some.
In 2004 I worked for a short time in Tasmania
at the Australian Antarctic Division.
The icebreaker Aurora Australis had just returned
from a voyage around Heard Island.
The ship had a camera attached to its hull
to film the ocean floor.
This was an experiment,
something not done before.
With pencil in hand I watched the film
and drew for several hours.
I saw some creatures
unknown to the scientists,
wildlife yet to be named.
I drew this spiral with pencil on paper, moving through the Salisbury Plains in a car. I drew it as a kind of seismograph as evidence of having been touched by that landscape. In the animation, the spiral connects another landscape with other life forms. I am drawing on a symbol that has been used for centuries to represent the life force of the natural world.
