“Seed Reef” Immersive Experience
January 9, 2023 – Through February 18, 2023
Seed Reef is an immersive, sculpted paper installation of a coral reef, created by artists Emma Difani and Malcolm Zachariah, in collaboration with members of City Arts of Ponca City. Participants will walk “underwater” through the kirigami (cut and folded paper) reef as it transitions from a colorful, vibrant section full of corals, fish, and other sea life to a barren wasteland of bleached coral skeletons. Participants are invited to restore Seed Reef by constructing and adding their own corals and other reef animals to the installation. By crafting corals, you are helping seed the reef, bringing it back to a healthy, thriving state. Together, we will reanimate the bleached region of Seed Reef, discovering the beauty and complexity of this unique environment and understanding humankind's impact upon the planet. Artists Malcolm Zachariah and Emma Difani’s artistic partnership formed through a shared love of material, nature, and ecology. Emma will use dye, silkscreen, and woodcut printmaking techniques to create patterns and imagery based on reef life. Malcolm will design, cut, and shape the printed paper to create stationary and suspended kirigami sculptures.
Seed Reef is an immersive, sculpted paper installation of a coral reef, created by artists Emma Difani and Malcolm Zachariah, in collaboration with members of City Arts of Ponca City. Participants will walk “underwater” through the kirigami (cut and folded paper) reef as it transitions from a colorful, vibrant section full of corals, fish, and other sea life to a barren wasteland of bleached coral skeletons. Participants are invited to restore Seed Reef by constructing and adding their own corals and other reef animals to the installation. By crafting corals, you are helping seed the reef, bringing it back to a healthy, thriving state. Together, we will reanimate the bleached region of Seed Reef, discovering the beauty and complexity of this unique environment and understanding humankind's impact upon the planet. Artists Malcolm Zachariah and Emma Difani’s artistic partnership formed through a shared love of material, nature, and ecology. Emma will use dye, silkscreen, and woodcut printmaking techniques to create patterns and imagery based on reef life. Malcolm will design, cut, and shape the printed paper to create stationary and suspended kirigami sculptures.