A WAVE BENEATH TH SURFACE
At the French Residence in San Francisco.
With Consul Valérie Brisset, Consulate of France in San Francisco and Villa Albertine San Francisco
Made from dried kelp fragments collected by Kalie Granier along the shores of Santa Cruz and Monterey over many years, the installation brings an invisible underwater forest into the heart of the Residence de France. Woven together with recycled wool, these fragments become a gesture of care toward a fragile ecosystem at risk of disappearing.
The Wave Beneath the Surface refers to both the wave suggested by the woven form and the invisible waves of marine heat that are transforming California’s coastal ecosystems. During the 2014–2016 marine heatwave, more than 90% of the bull kelp canopy disappeared along over 350 km of Northern California coastline, as warming waters, the loss of sea stars, and the proliferation of purple sea urchins combined to devastate kelp forests.
Woven with recycled wool, these dried fragments become a tactile trace of this fragile ecosystem—a gesture of care toward a forest that exists largely beyond our view, beneath the surface.
