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Artist Cornelia Kavanagh and one of her pteropod sculptures.

Artist Cornelia Kavanagh and one of her pteropod sculptures.
Artist Cornelia Kavanagh and one of her pteropod sculptures.
Artist Cornelia Kavanagh and one of her pteropod sculptures.
Artist Cornelia Kavanagh and one of her pteropod sculptures.
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191242
Kleindinst, Thomas N.
Artist Cornelia Kavanagh and one of her pteropod sculptures.
Still Image
11/04/2011
graphics/Gareth_Lawson_Corelia_Kavanagh/DSC_7527.JPG
Image of The Day caption:
Sculptor Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh's concern for water and the ocean inspires her work. For "The Pteropod Project: Charismatic Microfauna," she collaborated with WHOI biologist Gareth Lawson, who studies these animals, to create aluminum and bronze sculptures of pteropods, tiny planktonic snails. Pteropods are important food for larger ocean animals, but ocean acidificaton may affect their ability to make shells in the future. Kavanagh's sculptures are showing along with video, photographs, and information from Lawson's research in Manhattan's Blue Mountain Gallery from May 22 to June 16. Lawson and members of his lab will be at the gallery on Saturday, June 16 from 2 to 5 p.m. to discuss their research.
The artist is Cornelia Kavanagh and her husband (who also helps with some of the scuplting), Penn Kavanagh. She is calling this "The Pteropod Project: Charismatic Microfauna." Pteropods are zooplankton that have a shell, which makes them particularly susceptible to ocean acidification, and her sculptures represent how she envisages they will be affected by ocean acidification. The series include sculptures of two species of shelled pteropod, Limacina helicina and Limacina retroversa. The helicina were the pieces on my conference table and the retroversa were on the lab bench.
Photo by Tom Kleindinst
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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