As part of the Active Environmentalism programming at Messums Org, which is founded on the principle that action begins with knowledge, British sculptor and advocate for the awareness of climate change, Tessa Campbell Fraser created an art installation with a focus on interspecies communications between man and animal. 

Three monumental (5.2m, 4.6m and 3m respectively) sculptures of sperm whales were suspended from the roof vertically as the animals would in repose. The sculptures offer a response to the environment whereby the viewer becomes immersed into an imaginative world of the whale whilst the surroundings reflect man’s increasing ecological impact on the world’s climate.

Campbell Fraser deliberately used sustainable, natural, recycled or repurposed materials. Using recycled ghost netting, silk chiffon, latex, and synthetic (recycled) paper, made with almost no water. 

In-depth exploration of sperm whales led to Campbell-Fraser’s research in to Project Ceti and the incorporated of the science of communication into her art. Over five years, the science-based experiment in Dominica has gathered vast amounts of Sperm Whale data, using underwater hydrophones to capture and record their distinctive ‘coda-clicks’. Along with studying their behaviour and methodologies to interpret the whales’ sounds. They have already discovered that whales have varying dialects and twenty-three different patterns of ‘coda-clicks’.

Campbell Fraser’s work is inspired by both the exploration of interspecies communication through decoding together with her own immersive experience swimming with the whales in Dominica. She describes, “I didn’t quite know what to expect being face-to-face with these giant creatures in their environment. I hoped I would hear them coda click, and indeed I did, but it wasn’t these sounds that gave me the intense feeling of an inter-species communication.”