How to Make an Ocean

In early 2020, an accumulation of personal tragedy and global panic led to an intense period of grief and anxiety for Polish-English artist Kasia Molga. The act of crying became one of the only ways to mediate the intense emotions she was feeling. This caused her to reflect on the power of tears to heal our relationship with our oceans.

A period of research followed, during which Molga studied the cause and composition of tears and how they might be cultivated to support life. Here, Molga’s tears are combined with water from the North Sea to sustain specimens of algae. Each micromarine ecosystem is carefully annotated with date, algae type, and reason for crying.