Limacina Helicina Antarctica – The Butterfly Effect

Debbie Symons’ work Limacina Helicina Antarctica – The Butterfly Effect explores the effects of the changing ocean chemistry on one of the Earth’s tiny but vital mollusc species, the Limacina helicina Antarctica, or the sea butterfly. This beautiful miniature species is at the bottom of the oceanic food chain and is, and will continue to be, affected by the changing pH levels of the Earth’s oceans and its follow-on effect of the dissolution of calcium carbonate.

The Butterfly Effect examines the inextricable links between environmental degradation and free-market capitalism. With humankind continuing to pump ever more CO2 into the atmosphere, these tiny creatures that support our society and other species exhibit signs of the strain imposed upon them. With contemporary scientific research documenting sea butterflies’ shells cracking and disintegrating due to the changing oceanic chemistry. The Butterfly Effect implores the viewer to look upon the critical situation transpiring within one of the Earth’s remaining ‘wild’ spaces, the Antarctic, with renewed impetus by reflecting the dire situation materialising.

The Butterfly Effect is a HD Video work. Run time 5:11 minutes.

Exhibition history for Limacina Helicina Antarctica – The Butterfly Effect

Ocean Imaginaries, RMIT Gallery, City campus, Swanston Street, Melbourne. Part of CLIMARTE’s Art+Climate=Change, 2017 Festival

Fossil – a slow-acting violence, 2017. Stephen McLauglanGallery, Melbourne

Finalist, Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, 2019, Gordon, NSW

ZAZ10TS, Times Square, Gallery and Urban Screen, 2020, New York, USA