Bottle at Sea
An artist debut performance
On October 8th 2021, at 5:30 pm, a bottle with a message was thrown in the ocean, off the coast of Brazil (12.55° S, 37.25°).
The message was written on a cyanotype art photogram of a planktonic being, a dinoflagellate named Ceratium.
After a 5 week scientific sailing expedition in Brazilian waters, between Macapá and Salvador da Bahia, the Bottle at Sea was a farewell ritual to the ocean. A first public artistic demonstration, a debut performance.
Aboard the Tara schooner, sailing brazilian waters, October 2021.
Southern Atlantic Ocean, southern sun.
A cyanotype of plankton in the making, on the deck of the ship.
The water revelation of the cyanotype, on the deck of the ship.
Cyanotype prints of plankton drying on the cabin of the scientist-artist.
Rolling the cyanotype with a message before putting it inside the bottle.
Message in a bottle, seconds before being thrown at sea.
Sunset and the sea, moments after the bottle was thrown at sea.
During the 32 days aboard Tara around 30 cyanotypes of plankton were made. All the necessary materials for that anticipated and planned endeavor had been brought to the ship: coated watercolor paper with the cyanotype ferric emulsion kept on black plastic bags, several plankton negatives, a clipboard, four clips and a glass plate (which quickly broke with the swift motion of the waves and was later replaced by a sturdy plexiglass plate found on board).
The message was addressed to the person who would read it and the cyanotype containing the message was rolled and inserted inside an empty wine bottle (which turned out to be surprisingly challenging due to the thickness of the watercolor paper).
The message in the bottle was thrown in the ocean just before sunset. A plankton portrait was offered to the sea and, what came from the sea, was returned to the sea.
As the sun disappeared in the horizon, the 29th sunset at sea, it left with a brief magical green flash. A rare sighting of the famous “rayon vert” from Jules Vernes’ novel (1882):
Parfois, au moment de disparaître dans les flots, le soleil lance sur l'océan une ultime et brève fulgurance: ce fameux rayon vert qui, d'après une légende écossaise, confère à ceux dont il a frappé les yeux le pouvoir de voir clair dans les sentiments et les coeurs.
Map with the exact location where the message in a bottle was thrown in the sea.
Location (green circle) where the message in a bottle was thrown at sea. The image shows the surface currents (image from earth.nullschool.net).
On April 4th 2023, at 4:57 am, one year and a half after the message in the bottle was thrown at sea, an email arrived. From an unknown sender who had found the bottle.
The bottle and its message were found by Guilherme, a 17 year old boy from Brazil, who wrote that he had found the bottle in Baixio, a small coastal town in Bahia.
He later sent by email two photos showing what he had found inside the bottle - the plankton portrait and the message behind it. Both were faded but still present.
For 18 months the blue message in the bottle drifted at sea before being found, probably not too far off from where it was thrown from the ship. A message adrift at sea, for more that 500 days, found someone to read it. The artwork found its new human owner.
And the art performance was complete with a beginning, an 18 months’ odyssey - that only the sea knows its tale - and an ending.
And the artist was born.
Cyanotype plankton art that went in the bottle, October 8, 2021.
Message written behind the cyanotype art, on October 8, 2021.
Cyanotype art after 18 months in a bottle at sea, found by a 17 year old boy in Baixio (Bahia, Brazil), April 4, 2023.
Fading message found in the bottle after 18 months at sea. Brazil, April 4, 2023.