Merlantis

Merlantis, or The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is an underwater world created by a group of artists with a pre-existing webseries called Seatrip. The webseries tells the story of a timid human named Fisher who is transformed into a femme mermaid and caught up in a diabolical capitalist plot to exploit mermaids for their natural resources. We envision using the space as an interactive installation and as sets for underwater episodes of our webseries. The exhibit will use SeaTrip lore as a jumping off point, but it will stand on its own conceptually. Additionally, we will use the space for hosting staffed performances, ambient actors and other programming to make the space come alive.

This gallery installation is a real-world interactive embodiment of the SeaTrip themes and ethos. Through our narrative art we draw attention to the damaging effects of commodification and rampant capitalism on our planet, additionally normalizing LGBTQIA viewpoints. We hope this art will make the world safer for those who seek non-normative approaches to life and gender, and encourages self-reflection on how to create a healthier world.

For the installation itself, we aim to answer the question: what lies underneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? This underwater fantasy world is submerged in the detritus of human consumption, featuring a Seattle-esque world. This will be an urban environment imagined from a fish eye view, constructed from a combination of ocean floor materials and human trash fallen from the land above. There will be transitions between vignettes of the city-- from the posh, upscale throne room and surrounding coral gardens, to the seedy darker spaces of the back alley Chum Wall, kelp forest and the darker UV reactive abyssal zone.

Throughout the space will be mannequins wearing costumes, on scheduled days these costumes will be worn by ambient performers. On the throne sits Brosiedon, the douchey ruler of the mer people. Around the throne room are coral gardens, grown upon the submerged evidence of a flooded city. Ribbons and textiles hang from the ceiling, glistening rhinestones, a tactile, rainbow polished landscape with gobo lighting adding to the illusion of water moving around.

In mer and fish society, they are curious about their human neighbors and the objects they seem to admire. Cellphones, soda cans, miscellaneous trash are revered objects strewn about in a mock human exhibit where visitors may pretend to be a human in a human world. This serves to show a parallel of our society and the comical misrepresentations fish may have of our lives.

Moving away from polite society we come across the Chum wall, an homage to Seattle’s Gum Wall. The lighting becomes progressively darker as we move through the alley. In addition to the Chum wall, we see other indications of the seedier underbelly of the fish world. Piles of fishing-related trash like tuna cans, buoys, and broken crab traps clutter the space (Upcycled from a planned beach clean-up day). We will use lighting and arrangement to bring discordant beauty to trash. Revolutionary graffiti urges shellfish to overthrow the ruling mermaid one-percenters. Next to a giant tuna can ballpit stands the character Scope Creep, the shrimp purveyor of illicit goods. Even deeper into the creepy alley way, you cross through a disconcerting kelp forest with dangling fabric tendrils that transitions the participant through a sensory experience on the way to the abyssal zone.

Our live ticketed performances will be taking place inside the canon of SeaTrip. Visitors will experience a day in the life of a mermaid by attending the ticketed events, sponsored by Blissfish (the fictional corporation in this webseries). Visitors will have a chance to participate in this society by interacting with ambient performers or the cabaret.

We want audience members to gain a different understanding of gender and human environmental impact, through a welcoming and lighthearted aesthetic. Only on closer inspection do you become aware of the horrors underlying society and gain direction for activism.

Our installation design team is composed of 9 key artists with a diverse set of experience in fine arts, performance and craft. And True Misschiff is made up of 40 collaborators who will come together to make this underwater realm a reality. We have a long track record of successfully organized events, performances and produced art work.

Each of the zones will have numerous artworks for sale, to be picked up at the end of the show run. We also have plans for a gift shop selling thematically appropriate items: mermaid kits, tiny fish sauce, laser cut fish jewelry, single use plastics, etc…

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