Rome Point Seaweed Constructions #1 by May Babcock

May Babcock

Rome Point Seaweed Constructions #1

artist-made paper from seaweed and abaca, fencing, wire

13 x 12 x 10 in

Inv: AFP1

Seaweed papermaking, sculptural hand papermaking

Rome Point Seaweed Constructions is a series of wall sculptures made from invasive seaweed paper, that tells a story of industry interwoven with a species from afar, and how humans shape the waters more than we know.

Rome Point is located in Rhode Island, USA. It was a summer fishing place for thousands of years for the Narragansett tribe. In the 1970s, the site was considered for a UNC nuclear energy plant, with cooling towers that would circulate hot water into the cold ocean waters, raising the temperature of the Bay. Through community advocacy, this did not happen.

The artist made the paper from Rome Point’s Codium fragile seaweed, which arrived to coastal North America in the 1950s, in ship ballast water from Japan. It outcompetes eel grass needed for shellfish, and so is labeled as an invasive species. The form is influenced by nuclear cooling towers and the act binding together book pages. Rome Point Seaweed Constructions are inspired by these interconnections, circular systems, and ties between past, present, and future.

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Additional Details

Additional Artworks

River Reverence 7

River Reverence 5

River Reverence 2

Carox primaevus, 40 million years

Rome Point Seaweed Constructions #6

Rome Point Seaweed Constructions #3

Rhode Island Herbarium: Moonstone Beach #3

Rhode Island Herbarium: Green Hill Beach #1