Katel Delia

THREAD OF WHAT REMAINS

Oceans and seas cover more than 70% of our planet. They produce much of the oxygen we breathe, provide food, and regulate climate systems vital to life on Earth. Yet these vast  ecosystems are under unprecedented pressure. From plastic pollution and ecosystem degradation to overfishing, climate change, and the looming extinction of marine species, the
ocean is facing a crisis of alarming complexity and scale.

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Threads of What Remains is an intimate artistic investigation by Katel Delia, a seasoned diver who has spent nearly three decades exploring the underwater world firsthand. Through her lens, she captures haunting images of a fragile and unstable marine environment, where once-abundant fish populations have given way to vast areas devoid of life, and surviving coral reefs bear traces of plastic embedded in their delicate structures.

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Delia’s unique approach incorporates delicate embroidery on her underwater photographs, stitching seabed reliefs and topographical lines that echo the shapes of submerged landscapes near threatened coastlines and reefs. These embroidered threads become a metaphor for the fragile ties connecting humanity to the sea, and the urgent need to protect these underwater realms before they disappear.

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The exhibition also sheds light on the ocean’s exploitation through destructive practices such as bottom trawling, a method that not only devastates seabeds and releases stored carbon but also proves economically unsustainable in the long run. It reveals how abandoned fishing nets, stretching far enough to circle the Earth multiple times, continue to threaten marine life and ecosystems long after being discarded.

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Katel’s work draws deeply on her personal experience, reminding us that the ocean’s vitality is not infinite. Where divers once encountered untouched reefs and thriving biodiversity just meters below the surface, they now face cliffs of destruction and the silent disappearance of life. The exhibition asks us to reflect on what remains beneath the waves, the threads of life, memory, responsibility, and ultimately, to reconsider our relationship with the ocean.

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Threads of What Remains is an intimate journey through the fragile underwater world. It is a call to awareness, safekeeping, and hope, and an invitation to witness the sea’s beauty and vulnerability, and to act before its wonders become relics of the past.