“Rebuilding a whale from discarded paper for our daughter, and for the ocean.”

This work began with a simple question from our daughter:

“Is there really a fish that big in the ocean?”

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In that moment, we realised we could no longer confidently promise her that whales would still exist when she grows up. That uncertainty pushed us to create a whale she could stand beneath a whale large enough to inspire awe and remind us what we are trying to protect.

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Years of working as environmental artists have shown us another truth: the ocean is no longer filled only with marine life. It is becoming crowded with what we throw away such as paper, plastic, packaging, and fragments of our habits. These materials do not belong to the sea, yet they slowly replace the lives that should be there.

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So we chose to rebuild this whale’s skeleton from discarded paper and old books, because both whale and paper can continue giving something back, even after their first purpose has ended. This idea is inspired by whale fall, the extraordinary process where a whale’s body becomes a deep-sea ecosystem that sustains life for decades.

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In the same way, these unwanted books find a second life as part of the whale’s form and story. For our daughter and our coming newborn, this is our small effort to ensure they grow up in a world that still holds oceans and whales  and a reminder that even forgotten things can nurture new meaning and hope.