Malum Geminos

This hand-sculpted ceramic wall relief is comprised of bleached coral forms branching horizontally in a fractal-inspired, book-matched pattern across the gallery wall. Clusters of gelatinous white polyps appear to have had their supportive skeletons dissolved by acidic seawater. The title Malum Geminos, meaning “evil twins” in Latin, pays homage to a statement by the Honorable Jane Lubchenco, PhD at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen referring to ocean acidification as the “equally evil twin” of climate change, caused by carbon dioxide emissions dissolving into the sea. The skeletal nature of this design also references Dr. Lubchenco’s other profound comparison of ocean acidification as “osteoporosis of the sea.”

Main Image (black background): Photographed at the Art Science Museum in Singapore during 'Iris van Herpen. Sculpting the Senses.' Courtesy Marina Bay Sands.

Additional photography by Paul Mutino at the Florence Griswold Museum in Connecticut during the 2019 exhibition "Fragile Earth," curated by Dr. Jenny Parsons.