Nosh Neneh is a visual artist and researcher who works at the intersection of ecology, art and activism. Her current focus is on the phenomenon of coral color bleaching, which occurs when environmental stressors such as rising water temperatures cause corals to expel the colorful algae that live within their tissues. While some corals turn ghostly white when they bleach, others can instead turn a bright range of neon colors in a final effort to survive. The corals’ neon manifestation seems to be an urgent call for help. By zooming in on this neon bleaching, Neneh shows its paradoxical spectacle – at once captivating in its surreal appeal and intensely alarming as a harbinger of ecological collapse.
In this project, Neneh utilize photographs captured by herself in Burger’s Zoo’s artificial reef, along with archival photographs sourced from the The Ocean Agency. She specifically sought out archived material documenting the neon bleaching event in Okinawa, Japan, which occurred during the massive bleaching event in 2016, widely recognized as one of the largest bleaching events triggered by El Niño. For the display of these photographs, she employed eco latex, chosen for its transient nature and elasticity. Latex has its ability to evolve over time, primarily in terms of color, while maintaining an inherent tension because of its elasticity. In many ways, the changing colors and elasticity, is a reminiscent of the coral reefs, which are also under constant strain.