Universe in a Single Drop is an exhibition of works created during a voyage with Schmidt Ocean Institute, exploring the deep connections between ocean and cosmos. While at sea, the ship’s hangar was transformed into a pop-up exhibition in the middle of the ocean, in international waters — a floating space for art, science, and planetary reflection.
Developed through field research aboard the vessel, the exhibition considers how a single drop of seawater can contain entire worlds. Large-scale cyanotype tapestries capture phytoplankton and zooplankton as cosmic fields, revealing microscopic marine life as something vast, luminous, and celestial. Videos document artworks being submerged thousands of meters into the deep sea, while field journals trace diatoms observed under the microscope. Petri-dish-like cosmic drawings sent 5,000 meters below the surface become both experiments and offerings, carrying human imagination into one of Earth’s least understood realms.
The exhibition also reflects on the gestures of the ROV — its robotic movements echoing NASA’s Canadarm — drawing parallels between deep-sea exploration and outer space. In this convergence of ocean technology, scientific observation, and artistic inquiry, the deep sea emerges as a parallel frontier: mysterious, extreme, interconnected, and essential to understanding life on Earth.
Shared with the scientists, engineers, and crew aboard the vessel, Universe in a Single Drop marked a first exhibition at sea and a deeply meaningful exchange across disciplines. The series will continue to evolve for future exhibitions linking sea and space — two vast frontiers that remind us how alive, interconnected, and mysterious our planet truly is.