Fins, original seafloor rock and adjacent shells. Varying sizes

The ROCKY III project is a performance and a site-specific work; a public sculpture (if the public knew where it was) and an installation. In 1979, artist Ed Ruscha allegedly replaced a rock in the Mojave Desert with an exact replica of it, never to tell anyone of its whereabouts. This enigmatic work was given the name Rocky II.

Holding her breath, Joana Carro dived to a depth of 14 meters in the sea in search of a stone. With the help of Felipe Lombó, Professor of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Oviedo, she coated a replica of the stone with layers of a new biomaterial inspired by mother-of-pearl. This biomaterial, created with the help of the bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii, consists of 43 layers, developed over three months in the laboratory. Again by diving, the resulting object, ROCKY III, was discreetly placed on the seabed at an unknown location off the coast of Gijón.

Credits

Pieza realizada en colaboración con / Piece made in collaboration with: Felipe Lombó & Javier Fernández, Departamento de Microbiología de la Universidad de Oviedo / Department of Microbiology of the University of Oviedo

Asesoramiento / Advisory: Dominik Schmieden, Delft University of Technology, Marie-Eve Aubin-Tam & Anne S. Meyer

Artist: Joana Carro

Work included in the exposition Terranautas