staceythinx:

Hadal by Angelo Musco

About the piece:

Definition: Hadal zone (Greek for “like Hades”, in other words “unseen”) or Hadopelagic zone is the delineation for the deepest trenches in the ocean. This zone is found from a depth of around 6,000 meters (20,000ft) to the bottom of the ocean. In 1960 Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh reached the Marianas Trench, the deepest trench on Earth, and observed light. It is believed that most life at this depth is sustained by marine snow or the chemical reactions around thermal vents. The lack of light and intense pressure create hostile living conditions, and few species are adapted to these conditions. As no sunlight reaches this layer of the ocean, deep sea creatures have adapted and most of the bottom dwelling creatures lack any pigmentation since colorization is not useful in an environment with no light. Creatures removed from this zone will die in the lower-pressure areas above. ‘Hadal’ is a French word meaning “house of the dead”, which is in turn from the Greek god Hades, the god of the dead, and his domain. 

Conceptual Description: Turning reality upside down, and creating works against preconceived ideas is one of the elements of this new photo project - Structures of life (ie: nests) in an hostile threatening atmosphere (ie: Hadal zone). Musco creates an ominous dark world where a gigantic nest floats in the darkness near the ocean floor, a world seen as a conceptual amniotic dimension. The nest is made by hundreds of nude silver bodies where each body is like a branch pulled into the nest structure.

Traveling down to the darkest depths of the ocean one would expect to find a hostile dead zone when in fact the environment is a vibrant and mysterious cross-section of life. This faraway environment symbolizes the depth of emotion aroused in connection with vulnerability of early life. The image of the nest is teaming with hundreds of silver bodies announcing an unexpected presence of life. The silver bodies are also reminiscent of gigantic school of fish, each one actually being a nude human form, bonding with hundreds of others in a frenzied swirl of life.