Deborah O’Brien partners with Macroalgae to share their Voice in our conversation on life, loss and climate care. Working on the shorelines of southern Australia and the west of Ireland, Deborah investigates the species present; experimenting in processes of print and photography to share what is seemingly abundant, ubiquitous, living, transforming, and dying. 

Algae asks us to take notice, give thanks, pay respect, love more, breathe deeply. 3.5 billion years ago. Cyanobacteria – formerly known as blue-green algae – are the first oxygenic photosynthetic organisms on Earth. Around 1.5 billion years ago, a colourless cell is feeding when it ingests a cyanobacterial cell, where it becomes a plastid. By acquiring a plastid, the colourless cell is transformed into the first plant cell on Earth, subsequently giving rise to three algal lineages: blue-grey, red and green. This is primary endosymbiosis.[1] One organism becomes the habitat of another. All the oxygen that makes the atmosphere breathable for aerobic organisms originally came from cyanobacteria or their descendants. Various algal species drive the biogeochemical cycles that make Earth habitable.

By working with Macroalgae, indexing what is there clearly but unrecognised, or what is not immediately apparent, Deborah hopes to bring to the forefront of our consciousness the importance of a collective care-driven response to climate change. In this work, seaweed is printed as monotypes and scanned. In the editing process, one setting - temperature - is increased to the extreme, resulting in blue-green colour.

[1]Phillips, J. A. (2023). The lives of seaweeds: A natural history of our planet’s seaweeds and other algae. Princeton University Press.

Deborah O'Brien is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing & Printmaking) at the VCA, University of Melbourne, having previously completed a Diploma in Art & Design at NCAD. Exhibitions include:

2024: Habitat. Group Show. George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus. 

2024: Experiments in Print & Photography: Two person show. Anglesea ArtSpace, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia. 

2023: Monochome: Group Show, Anglesea ArtSpace, Great Ocean Road, Victoria. 

2019: Untitled. Group Show, Plexus Collective, A4 Sounds, Dublin.