Julian Charrière: Deep End

The works on view in Deep End explore the fragility and resilience of planetary water systems, engaging with the complexity of the sea not only as a regenerative carbon sink, habitat, chemical marker for climate change or liminal space, but also as a vast biogeological system in which we are entrenched. Presented therein are immersive environments and atmospheric conditions that evoke the ocean’s abyss, including a darkened exhibition space where multi-sensory experiences create a porous relationship between the viewer and object. Dreamlike compositions of moving image and sound bring audiences on a visceral journey into some of the planet’s most vulnerable and remote ecosystems, encouraging careful listening to the constant communication between the organisms that occupy it. Materials such as bitumen, ground coral, and mud from the deep seafloor are embedded in several works, becoming charged with human history and our impulse to transform the natural world into a resource. They mark an intersection between the accelerating consequences of anthropogenic environmental change and the slow geological time required to produce the carbon deposits that fuel it.

A newly commissioned work, Hope Line (2026), features a live stream of a coral reef near Port Antonio, Jamaica, that was strongly affected by the 2023 El Niño bleaching event. This meditative installation allows visitors not only to witness and listen to one of the most important and biodiverse habitat types on the planet, but also to emit their own voices into it. Bridging time and place, Hope Line ultimately asks how art can act as a vector for advocacy. The exhibition also facilitates the beginning of a feasibility study for a closely related project titled Reefwards (2026), which combines underwater land art with coral reef restoration and conservation, developed through past and present collaboration with scientists, researchers, NGOs and advising universities, and most recently close dialogue with marine biologist and coral specialist Dr. Sebastian Schmidt-Roach and parametric designer and architect Phillipp Mecke.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue.

The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Environment and Art Prize is a juried award supporting artists whose practices engage critical intersections of art, architecture, design, climate, conservation, sustainability, and environmental justice.

Julian Charrière: Deep End is organized by Paula Kroll, Assistant Curator, in collaboration with Kelsey Shell, Environmental & Sustainability Strategist, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.