Description
ALIEN #6:
The Larvacaen might just be my personal favorite from the Aliens Collection, and I affectionately call it “lungs”. But what we see as the lungs, isn’t actually the animal itself – the larvacaen itself, is the light blue blob hiding behind and at the bottom crack of the lungs. Its shaped like a tadpole, ~2-3cm long, and pulses water into the “lungs” with a rhythmic motion of it’s tail. The lungs, are not part of it’s body, but rather a mucus feeding web that it spins to catch organic debris and tiny organisms. I spent several dives obsessed with understanding what I was actually photographing, until one night, I accidentally bumped into the lungs (which measure up to 30cm wide), and I saw a white-ish flash rapidly swim away, abandoning the lungs. Only then was I able to realize that the lungs themselves were not the actual organism, but rather just its feeding mechanism. Now when I find one, I float motionlessly (carefully, so as not to cause it to flee its web in defense) and marvel at the creature itself – spinning it’s web, as beautiful as any spider’s orb web on land, and with much the same intention. On most nights over the abyss, larvacaens are nowhere to be found, but every so often, they’re super-abundant, typically just deeper than 50′. I theorize they don’t spin webs any shallower that that because wave action near the surface would break apart the webs.
For printing, we offer the Aliens as squares on either aluminum or canvas, but they are customizable into other shapes if your design plan requires it. You can purchase this luxury wall art online in standard sizes, but if you’d like to discuss a custom crop or size, please contact one of our design consultants at the art gallery. Perhaps our most popular arrangement for Aliens is a grouping of three of our 15″ x 15″ aluminums, but I encourage you to discuss the size & shape of your project’s wall with one of our design consultants, who will help you develop an amazing contemporary art installation that blurs the lines between natural beauty and scientific fascination. Alien 6 is available up to a maximum size of 96″.