Breathing Deep Currency

Breathing Deep Currency is Kristina Õllek's new installative work, focusing on the fragile deep sea habitat and the complex issues surrounding prospective deep sea mining, particularly the future extraction of the manganese nodules, which growth is one of the slowest of all geological phenomena—a centimeter over several million years. The work continues her earlier project, Nautilus New Era (2018), when she first explored the deep sea and its future exploitation, which was already back then a very serious concern. Since that time, the urgency of these issues has only intensified, driven by mounting economic interests and shifting political agendas.

A significant turn in our understanding of the deep sea emerged with a very recent discovery by the Scottish Association for Marine Science, published in detail in 2024. Until now, it was believed that oxygen could only be produced through photosynthesis in the presence of light. However, this new research reveals that 'dark oxygen' can be generated in complete darkness at the abyssal seabed. The oxygen producers have been discovered to be the polymetallic nodules, also known as manganese nodules, which have also been very much in the interest of the mining companies for their valuable rare metals. With the electrolysis reaction, they're splitting seawater into oxygen and hydrogen. More in-depth research on this significant discovery is currently being done, and it is believed to be a crucial breakthrough in the efforts to protect the deep seabed.

Kristina Õllek's new work is floating with sea salt grown 'rare metal' sculptures, swirling quietly in the space as the currency, surrounded by hints of deep sea environment, with the oxygen release and abyssal seabed life, creating a space to breathe and think with the deep.