The Seagrass Walk

As the UK’s first Blue Carbon Artist in Residence, Rosie Sherwood created The Seagrass Walk at the National Marine Aquarium in 2022, an immersive installation informed by scientific research that celebrates seagrass – the ocean’s wonder plant. Launched in the wake of COP26, the project was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and supported by Plymouth University, the Ocean Conservation Trust, and Ocean Plastic Technologies. In 2023, The Seagrass Walk was shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize.

The Seagrass Walk is comprised of light and sound, bringing together underwater photography, video art, sculpture and an ocean-inspired soundscape to create the sensation of the seabed. Sherwood sought out an old analogue underwater film camera to capture the colourful underwater seagrass meadows with all the depth and richness film provides. Venturing along England’s southwest coast in search of seagrass, Sherwood recorded footage using GoPro cameras, concrete weights, and a remote-operated underwater vehicle. Leaving the camera rolling underwater for hours, she would return to fish it out with the help of a buoy attached to the camera weight with a long rope. She edited this footage into a split screen 10 minute video with a soundscape composed by Simon Tassano (Rumiville Music).

The Seagrass Walk occupies a corridor of the National Aquarium, where Sherwood transformed the space to bathe visitors in ocean-inspired colour through a hybrid of sculpture and light art. Using recycled ocean plastic, Sherwood designed four unique sculptural light boxes, which she fixed to the ceiling and backlit. Fabricated by Ocean Plastic Technologies – a company working to remove litter from our oceans to advance a sustainable and inclusive waste plastic economy that drives entrepreneurship, wealth creation and community development – the light boxes are inspired in equal measure by the colours and shapes of fish tanks, waves and seagrass meadows, combining the world beneath the ocean with our experience at its edges and inside the National Marine Aquarium.

Human industry and activity have accelerated carbon dioxide emissions, a huge contributing factor to the climate crisis. Seagrass and blue carbon are vital nature-based solutions to mitigating climate breakdown. The term blue carbon refers to carbon captured and stored by marine ecosystems. Seagrass meadows, which occupy as little as 0.1% of our oceans, can capture carbon more effectively than entire rainforests. Despite this knowledge, seagrasses are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems. In the UK, we are losing approximately 500 hectares a year, mainly due to avoidable human activity.

The Seagrass Walk raises awareness of the plant’s immense benefits and extraordinary beauty. The immersive installation brings seagrass to the public in a way that will inspire wonder, empathy, intrigue, and action. Given the urgent need to address the climate crisis, this response is what we need.

Print sales

All the photographs featured in The Seagrass Walk installation, plus a few of my favourite outtakes, are available for sale in my print shop. CLICK HERE to browse and choose your very own seagrass print.

PODCASTS

Speak up for the Blue - Blue Carbon through Ocean Art

The Sustainiacs - Rosie Sherwood and the Climate Change Superhero

The Saltwater Songlines - The Seagrass Walk with Rosie Sherwood