CONVERSATION WITH OUR OCEAN is an ambitious immersive installation which blends semi-abstract video projections, digital prints and text works.

The research and science underpinning this body of work has potential for huge positive change in the world, but without the public having knowledge of its capacity, there is little motivation to act. Art by its very nature can encourage this agency and inclusion and is invaluable at communicating often complex cultural and philosophical concepts. The rewilding and preservation of our ocean is at the heart of all Ogilvie & Page do, producing work that engenders hope and positive thinking regards our relationship with the world’s ocean.

In the cavernous interior of the Dissection Room in Summerhall and inspired by the work of world leading marine scientists and colleagues, Ogilvie & Page will transform the space with an ambitious immersive installation. During the exhibition, large-scale outdoor video projections of semi-abstracted blue carbon ecosystems will be projected onto prominent public buildings throughout Edinburgh. Workshops will be held by Katie Fowlie, with more information on Instagram.

on the art of elizabeth ogilvie & robert page

Conversation with our Ocean is Elizabeth Ogilvie and Robert Page's contribution to a wider cultural movement towards hopefulness and real change. It is a magnificent invitation to us all.

Conversation is clearly structured around the idea of 'the conversation' and rightly so. The project has emerged directly through the art of listening, of seeking out and forging connections, working with empathy, sharing expertise, all done in a spirit that respects other people's expertise and worldview.

Conversation is less about the abstract connections between art, science and climate and more about identifying benign and hostile players across these areas. Ogilvie and Page are artist-filmmakers who seek original expressions of natural phenomena and multispecies interactions within their work. There are many such artists out there currently and over past centuries, working in ways sympathetic to the context of their times.

In the end, art-science binaries and potentials for collaboration are not really about art and science in the abstract but about those in either domain with shared values and sense of urgencies, set against those who simply do not see a problem. Ogilvie and Page certainly recognise the problem yet want to find positive stories and entrance-ways into the future that involve staying on this planet and helping to fix the mess. This includes inspiring others to see what might be mended and how beautiful a move that would be.

Andrew Patrizio
Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh