DEAR CLIMATE

Whale fall feast

A true collaborative in working with the largest community efforts I've been a part of, I am leading a creative crochet art directive partnered with and designed by Dear Climate and hosted by Two Trees Management for an outdoor, interactive public arts and green space focusing on climate change awareness initiatives located on the Williamsburg Waterfront, opening early Summer.

Our project is specifically on creating a message about "heroes" in our ocean during a "whale fall" which is when a whale carcass falls to the bottom of the deep ocean floor and then begins a feast by "heroes" of various creatures, helping generate biodiversity.

Before a whale dies - and from various reasons, two major ideas are being highlighted: 1- krill, a major food source for whales, is dwindling down. When a whale does find a large school of krill, it will send echo location to other whales, however 2- with major boating and fishing traffic, the echo location has become less easy for whales to communicate, while also adding fishing debris to the waters and being a major source found in the whale's bellies.
Single-use plastics are also another huge piece of destruction in our waters and on our sea life.

Working together as a major force of volunteers on this message and art installation, everyone near and far on the creative part is working together to crochet "heroes" (we will share what exactly they are as they are being created so stay tuned...) out of single-use plastics and some marine rope debris. We have been collectively seeking *clean single-plastics from our community and partnering with local artist and zero waste cafe owner Jenny Cooper of IXV has set-up a drop-off for everyone to help pitch in these pesky materials. THANK YOU for this amazing space and opportunity to have a street-side donation location!

***Clean single-use plastics for our materials is key for the health and safety of everyone involved. Thank you everyone who has donated to us and continues to reach out, every piece is being used for this art installation! We are still collecting!

meet the crochet team

THANK YOU to each and every ONE of our volunteers for coming together near and far! This has been a highlight in this project meeting new creatives, sharing ideas, and loving to make- TOGETHER. We are working in tandem via zoom and in-person meet-ups weekly. Everyone is contributing in huge efforts, crocheting when possible in their own time, gathering their own plastics in their own areas if not near NYC. We have a couple of volunteers who signed up not even knowing how to crochet...and a few who are very new to the medium! Meet everyone and see our progress as we continue towards our tight deadline. Enjoy and try to guess how many plastics we are using per end creature!

Alex Hsiao
Brooklyn, NY