Carol Ballenger - Water Worlds

Maker ShowcaseExhibition

18 Dec

Written By Laura Wasley

Maker Showcase

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.
- Carl Sagan

These Water World images were made from photographs taken in the shallow intertidal waters of St Ives Bay, Cornwall, and reflect the special light for which this area is known. As metaphors for marine habitats, from the fragile ecosystems of tidepools to the mysterious undiscovered depths of the ocean floor, the narratives they hint at are far-reaching.

Scientists are searching the deep sea for clues that may provide information about distant planets and moons in our galaxy which may have similar watery environments that might support life. They have named these extraterrestrial bodies “Water Worlds”.Some of the images in this exhibition may prompt us to imagine what these distant worlds might look like.

16 August - 1 November 2025

Print Room Gallery

Events

TBC

On planet Earth the ocean water worlds have long been under threat from human endeavour. However there is hope. Recent scientific research indicates that a damaged marine environment, if protected, has a remarkable ability to recover. Around the world people are beginning to feel they can make a difference and governments are beginning to listen.

These photographs have taken on a life of their own and have come to represent the interconnectedness of all things - where we can see the universe reflected in a tidepool.

About the exhibitor

Carol Ballenger | Devon

Carol's photographs are in collections in this country and abroad and have been exhibited widely, including for the National Trust, The Dartmoor National Park Authority, The Royal Photographic Society and the Edinburgh Festival. London exhibitions include St. Martin-In-The-Fields, The Barbican Galleries and the Embassy of Japan.

A Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a member of MAKE Southwest, she is a founder member of Arts Live who promote exhibitions, performances and workshops. Many projects have been undertaken in collaboration with poet John Powls.

Her work has always reflected environmental issues and concerns for nature and she sees her photographs as meditations on the landscape. Her first solo exhibition Earth Signs in 1993 looked at the already growing concerns of beach pollution. The Tree of Life, a commission from Arts in Health Southwest, was shown at the Science Museum, London; The New York Hall of Science; used in a report at the 2016 Paris Summit on Climate Change and published in the Larousse Yearbook and scientific journals.

She has used a range of cameras and processes from darkroom to digital, and feels that skills learned in the darkroom have informed her more recent digital work. The Route 66 book, launched at the Photographers’ Gallery in London 2016, used images from Google Earth’s Street View. Kaze, a video documenting a coastal storm, was shown at the 2018 South Korea Biennale.

Books include Dartmoor Dreams; Stone Universe; Dartington Hall, One Endless Garden; Route 66; Open Road for Promiseland; Ashide; The Red Comet and Working with Light.

Limited edition photographs are made by Carol Ballenger in her studio with archival inks and paper. Unframed prints are available to buy and take away.

artslive.org.uk