Australian artist Cassidy Salomon often works with sculpture materials such as gypsum to create textured paintings that give its viewers a tactile experience. She uses this technique to create her latest series, Midnight Marine, where she has portrayed whale sharks and eagle rays swimming in pitch-black waters. Both species have several things in common as they can be found swimming in Australian waters and they are also in dire need of conservation and preservation.
Pairing the fact that both species are endangered with the fact that the Australian oceans are becoming increasingly more polluted, the ‘midnight’ depicted in these paintings is meant to represent today’s dire circumstances that have affected the portrayed marine life. Yet, Salomon has portrayed the animals as magnificent and grand, showing that even in its darkest hours, nature can still stand tall and fight for another day. This is why the Midnight Marine series by Cassidy Salomon is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Life Below Water.
According to the Australian Museum, six different species of eagle rays can be found in Australian waters. One species, the ornate eagle ray is so rare that it has only had 60 confirmed sightings, gaining it the moniker “the unicorn of the sea.” One of the most recent sightings happened in Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, a protected UNESCO World Heritage site. Ningaloo Reef is one of the few places in the world that can host a healthy number of the whale shark population, a species otherwise recognized as threatened by the IUCN Red List. Over the past 25 years, a record number of over 1,700 different individual whale sharks have been found in the area.
However, the Australian Marine Conservation Society finds that 8 million tons of plastic are still being dumped annually into Australian waters, meaning Australian marine life is now being killed by plastic debris more than ever. Since borders are significantly more challenging to maintain underwater, it cannot be denied that some marine pollution has also made its way into the protected Ningaloo Reef area. Recent research has shown that local communities and visitors alike have done a great job ensuring the area remains litter-free. Still, this status quo will require continued effort to maintain, something that Salomon’s Midnight Marine pieces can help campaign for.
Cassidy Salomon’s Midnight Marine series is a poetic tribute to the beauty and resilience of marine life, even in the face of ecological adversity. By depicting endangered species such as whale sharks and eagle rays swimming through ominous, pitch-black waters, Salomon captures the urgency of their plight while celebrating their grandeur. Her textured, tactile paintings serve as a reminder of the fragility of life below water and the impact of human activities, such as pollution, on Australia’s oceans.
Find out more about Midnight Marine and other pieces by Cassidy Salomon on her website www.mysaltystudio.au or Instagram @my.saltystudio.