Crossings Gallery - Jessica Holz

Embedded in these compositions are traces of human presence –  microplastics, altered ecosystems, and in one composition, remnants of the artists own body.  The organisms’ responses and movements are framed against a backdrop of ecological disruption: warming waters, nutrient pollution, harmful algal blooms, and oxygen depletion. In the Gulf of Maine and along the East Coast, scientists have documented drastic declines in phytoplankton and shifts in zooplankton phenology, altering the rhythms of predator and prey and affecting fisheries that communities rely on. The blooms and hypoxic events in local waters like the Charles River resonate here, making visible the invisible consequences of climate change.

The work asks viewers to witness both the beauty and precarity of these tiny beings. Their struggle under the microscope — swimming, twisting, whole-body contractions, and fleeting pulses — becomes a metaphor for environmental stress, loss, and resilience. By magnifying these delicate ecosystems, the piece invites reflection on what we share with the plankton: cellular machinery, sensory responsiveness, and ultimately, the vulnerability to forces larger than ourselves.