Artists statement

This work emerged from a fascination with the invisible forces that shape life beneath the ocean’s surface known as the Bonney Upwelling. Found off the coast of Portland, Victoria, and part of the Great South Australian Coastal Upwelling System, this annual cyclic event draws cold, nutrient-rich water up from the depths and transforms the region into one of Australia’s most productive marine ecosystems.
The composition layers flowing, interwoven currents with the presence of the animals they sustain—blue whales, fur seals, little penguins, and vast swarms of krill—suggesting that life here is inseparable from motion, temperature, and chemistry. The work attempts to render this ocean as a living system—restless, cyclical, and interconnected. From microscopic plankton to the largest animals on Earth, all are interdependent and bound together by the shifting flows.
Visually, the work balances illustration and abstraction. Scientific data, oceanographic maps, and current models inform the directional lines and gradients while the animal life surges through teeming water. This approach invites the viewer to consider not just what is seen, but what is usually unseen: the forces that sustain this abundance.
Ultimately, this artwork draws on the data that explains this oceanographic anomaly in rational scientific terms to elicit something more vital and ephemeral. In translating measured patterns into movement, colour, and form, the work seeks to evoke the lived energy of the system: a fleeting, dynamic convergence that exceeds its own description and invites a deeper sense of wonder.

Physical description

Marine life set in front of a blue and white patchy background. Seawater swirling. Each animal is outlined in black. In front are two whales, one with mouth open and the other with mouth closed. There are four seals and several crustaceans and other plant life. There are swirling black lines and in the bottom lefthand corner there is an 8 pronged spoke and above it a semi circle with five arrows pointing in different directions. The image has the feel of a scientific diagram. some of the smaller images of marine life anmd plants are in red.

Inscriptions & markings

Bottom left:
Rush Hour: Bonney Upwelling Portland Vic 14/20
Bottom right:
Beth Croce '17