METAMORPHIC STREAM, 2024
Steel, aluminum mesh fabric, RGB lighting system, audio installation, Sound composition: Thomas Meyer
650 cm x 260 x 260 cm
In her exhibitions, Julia Bornefeld combines light and sound installations, objects, painting, photography, and video works in a poetically ambiguous manner. Her objects, with their balance of large volumes and simultaneous absence of weight, explore a wide range of themes, repeatedly indicating the ambivalences of forms of being. Metamorphic Stream is the latest work in a series of pieces that for years have explored the themes of myth, form, and appearance of marine creatures.
The luminous and sonorous installation Metamorphic Stream, exhibited in the outdoor space of Palazzo Donà dalle Rose in Venice, evokes a marine creature rising from the sea towards the sky. The sculpturally amorphous and shimmering
surface of the installation, composed of a semi-transparent aluminum mesh, shines in a wide range of spectral colors thanks to an RGB lighting system. These reflections of iridescent light recall the phenomenon of bioluminescence, similar to the multicolored glow of some marine animals, particularly deep-sea jellyfish, known since the Middle Ages.
Furthermore, the ever-changing sunlight gives the surface of the installation a mutable appearance. This metamorphic transformation of the luminous and sonorous installation is accompanied by a composition of archetypal sounds, played on a double-neck guitar thanks to a magnet that vibrates the strings.
The world’s oceans represent the largest and least explored habitat on our planet. In the depths of the oceans, eternal darkness reigns. The ability of marine animals to produce light is a survival strategy, serving to defend themselves from predators and attract mating partners and prey. Additionally,
the silvery sides of many marine animals shine and reflect light, camouflaging their shapes to protect themselves from enemy attacks. The number of jellyfish, including venomous species, has dramatically increased in all the world’s oceans, becoming a growing threat to fish stocks, as well as beingincreasingly used as filters for microplastics, agricultural
fertilizers, and ingredients for pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Jellyfish have long been consumed as a protein source in Asia. Jellyfish represent incredibly vital organisms, benefiting from global warming caused by humans, thus endangering the entire marine ecosystem.
The luminous and sonorous installation Metamorphic Stream invites reflection through its monumentality, the changing play of light, and the sound composition. In humanity’s disregard for coexistence lies its greatest threat against itself.