The Unseen (Napier)

Celebrate World Oceans Day by joining us for an exhibition of The Unseen, an art-sci exhibition making the unseen marine world visible. It is the result of research from Navigating marine social-ecological systems project.

Exhibition details

11 March - 8 June 2022
9am - 5pm daily
National Aquarium of New Zealand
546 Marine Parade, Napier South, Napier 4110

This exhibition involves a big recycling of the giant collaborative artwork first developed with the Nelson community in 2018, and added to in workshops held in Wellington and Tauranga in 2021.

About the research

Artist and researcher Gabby O'Connor worked with communities and school children to explore the risks associated with environmental and climate change, and how this might affect the way we manage Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine ecosystems.

The resulting collaborative artwork has involved thousands of schoolchildren, as well as their whānau and communities - and 12km of rope.

The workshops associated with this final exhibition will bring the total number of people involved in creating this artwork to over 2,000. 

Sustainability strategy

The rope used in the artwork will be recycled for other community projects and groups who have expressed an interest, and the cable ties will be donated to a recycled plastics design programme which repurposes plastic.