Intertidal

Organisms of the intertidal zone live between worlds in a harsh, ever changing environment. The foreshore, the beach, the rock pool are spaces where our lives intersect with creatures of salt and water. Water and air, sea and land, human and more-than-human. An overlapping space where our entanglements and interdependencies are laid bare.

This body of work is an assemblage of gooey forms; algal, molluscan; organisms that crawl and slither or are carried by current and wave. Sculptures are formed with textiles that are wrapped and draped; skins encrusted with embroidered beads that spill into and out of their bodies. The beaded forms are somewhat strange and alien creatures, yet inviting with their bright and sparkly bodies. The seaweed-mimics are machine embroidery, their supports washed away with seawater.

Ariana Lim is an artist living on Boonwurrung country. They work across sculpture, textiles, glass, and photography. They love tiny universes like those of a rockpool, or the interface between water and air, interstices, and what can live in these spaces in between. Finding influence from science fiction and alien realities, they create works of nature fiction that explore entanglement with our non-human kin and how we coexist in our shared world. Ariana completed their BFA (Hons) at Monash University in 2022

Image: installation view, Ariana Lim, Intertidal, 2024. Image: Sarah Forgie.