Underwater Forest draws its inspiration from the striking maritime industrial architecture of the historic covered finger wharves at Walsh Bay. Beneath these structures lies a rarely seen world: sections of the harbour plunge up to 30 metres deep, where the wharves are held aloft by towering native Australian turpentine trees. These submerged trunks form a vast, hidden arboreal landscape, an underwater forest that supports the iconic wharves above.
Stretching across 300m × 30m, Underwater Forest immerses viewers in a vast field of reflection and refraction. The installation brings this unseen environment into view through light. By illuminating the wharf poles and the shifting surface of the water, the work reveals the intricate patterns, textures, and rhythms of this submerged ecosystem. What is usually concealed becomes momentarily legible, transformed into a luminous celebration of the trees as they rest in their strange, aquatic habitat.
A dynamic lighting cycle animates the installation, echoing the changing states of illumination found in an Australian forest. Rainfall shimmer, the fierce glow of bushfire, the soft blush of pink sunrise, and the warm radiance of orange sunset unfold across the timber forms. These transitions create a living, breathing atmosphere, one that blurs the boundary between the natural and the constructed, the visible and the hidden.
Artist Ruth McDermott Ban Baxter.
Dimensions: 300m x 30m.
Medium: Wharf turpentine timber poles and water reflection.
Lightsource: LED Wall wash RGB DMX control.
Location: Walsh Bay Sydney Australia
IMAGE: finger wharves Walsh Bay SYDNEY
