New Annual - Cavitation Breathing Ocean: Izabela Pluta

Don't miss this immersive installation at Newcastle's Canoe Pool, where found sea floats gather and move with the tide to form an ever-shifting artwork. Swim alongside and move among the floating forms as they drift, gather and separate. Slow down, take a breath and experience this familiar location in a new way.

Collected from coastlines in Far North Queensland, the floats have travelled vast distances on ocean currents before washing ashore. Each carries signs of where it has travelled and how it has been used. Together, they also point to the growing environmental crisis of marine debris, carried by currents and accumulating along remote coastlines. Artist Izabela Pluta, born in Poland and based in Newcastle, draws on her own experience of migration and her connection to water as a swimmer and diver. Her work explores how water carries people, objects and histories across places, and how ideas of home and belonging can shift over time. The Canoe Pool itself was once known as the 'Map of the World Pool', with a large concrete map of the world rising through its waters. Pluta's installation returns a different kind of map to this historic site—one drawn by ocean currents, movement and chance.