Artist Mara G. Haseltine her open studio and work in progress: “La Bohème: A Portrait
of Today’s Oceans in Peril” as part of the DUMBO Arts Festival: 10 Jay St, Suite 620
(6th floor) September 28th-29th, Saturday and Sunday 10am-6pm.
DUMBO, Brooklyn (September 27-29, 2013) – Internationally renown environmental
Artist Mara G. Haseltine her open studio and work in progress: “La Bohème: A Portrait
of Today’s Oceans in Peril” as part of the DUMBO Arts Festival: 10 Jay St, Suite 620
(6th floor) September 28th-29th, Saturday and Sunday 10am-6pm.
Taking place amid the breathtaking backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge and the
Manhattan skyline, The DUMBO Arts Festival is a global showcase for the best in local,
national, and international art drawing over 200,000 people. A centerpiece of this
year’s popular open studios schedule, will be Mara G Haseltine’s, “La Bohème: A
Portrait of Today’s Oceans in Peril”.
For this occasion the artists studio will mimic the complex world that the artist sees
when she is looking through the microscope. Bathed by black lights, the plankton
inspired sculptures gleam in exquisite contrast with the rough plastic they cling
to. The viewers will enter into a world where the fantastical forms of plankton and the
pollution, form a dramatic portrait of today’s microscopic ocean. A minuscule world
threatened by pollution.
Plankton plays a crucial role in regulating our planet’s atmosphere, creating half of the
world’s oxygen. The artist’s plankton sample collection captured in oceans throughout
the world, revealed an alarming truth. Not only did the samples contain the delicate
otherworldly forms of plankton but also shreds of sunlight-degraded plastic. This
discovery inspired a series of sculptural depictions of oceanic plankton entwined with
plastic, that demonstrate that our fate is intimately linked with that of our oceans.
Throughout the open studio a preview for the film ” La Bohème: A Portrait of Today’s
Oceans will be presented. Depicting the poor young poet Rodolfo, who falls in love with
Mimi, a young grisette who is dying of consumption. In this case, Mimi is the plankton
sculpture ensnared in plastic — a representation of our ailing oceans. The performance
intends to highlight the close relationship between humans and the health of the
microscopic world, in particular our oceans. The Preview short film of ” La Bohème: A
Portrait of Today’s Oceans” had its world premier at the agnès b. gallerie at 50
Howard St, NY, NY, co-directed by Imagine Science Film’s Alexis Gambis, last March.
The work along with a preformance by Joseph Bartning of the Salzburg Opera Festival
will be showcased at this fall during the Imagine Science Film Festival October 13th-
18th.
For further information information on Mara G Haseltine’s open studio visit:
http://dumboartsfestival.com/2013/exhibition/mara-g-haseltine