Why does an artist work with jellyfish? And is the resulting video art or science? Dorothy Cross has no doubts, writes Aidan Dunne, Art Critic
As befits a video made by an artist and a scientist, Medusae is a hybrid. Dorothy Cross is one of the country's leading artists. Her brother, Tom Cross, is Professor of Zoology at University College Cork. Together, they have created the work over a three-year period.
Simply put, Medusae is about jellyfish. Funded by Sci Art (which explores links between science and art) and with support from Kerry County Council, the video combines scientific rigour with visual lyricism in a meditative exploration of these ominous, alien creatures.
Among the work's several strands or, in this case, tendrils, are the story of amateur naturalist Maude Delap (1866-1953) who succeeded in breeding two species of jellyfish on Valentia Island in 1902; original research on the world's fastest, most venomous jellyfish species, Cyanea lamarcki, undertaken on the north Australian coast; and eerily beautiful footage from the famous jellyfish lakes on Palau in the North Pacific and other sites. But Medusae doesn't set out to provide an objective, definitive account of these or its other strands. In fact, one of the most enjoyable and appealing things about it is that it celebrates the human capacity for curiosity, and manages to communicate a sense of wonder and enthusiasm throughout.
The starting point was Dorothy Cross's interest in Maude Delap, whose life formed the subject of an earlier video by the artist, Come into the Garden, Maude. "I'd never heard of her until a friend mentioned her to me in 1998. She was discussed in a book that came out at the time, Starshells and Bluebells, about a number of Irishwomen active in science and technology in the 19th century, and I read a piece about her in An Irishwoman's Diary in The Irish Times. It interested me that she was untrained, she was extraordinarily dedicated and she managed to do something that would still be regarded as very difficult today, even with more sophisticated equipment."
She learned this when she turned to Tom to discuss the possibility of a collaborative project. "Tom's area is chiefly genetics, and he has done a lot of work on marine species, including salmon and mollusca. I wondered if any of his students could breed jellyfish and the response surprised me. They said it would be a complicated and tricky thing to try and do."
For some years earlier in their lives, Tom, nine years her senior, had been her swimming coach. "We both love the sea and love swimming. That was another layer to our relationship as brother and sister." So when he suggested studying the fast-swimming Cyanea lamarcki, a relatively under-researched species, it seemed somehow appropriate. Doing so, though, entailed travelling to Australia. On the first trip, weather conditions militated against the presence of the fish, which meant going back a year later.
Cyanea lamarcki represents a real threat. In the video, Tom points out that, with more than 100 deaths attributed to them, they are responsible for many more fatalities in Australian waters than sharks or crocodiles, which tend to grab the headlines.
Given all this, Dorothy was surprised that relatively little is known about them. "They rule out swimming for six months of the year on the north coast, but they are hardly ever mentioned. It reminded me of the townspeople in Jaws, where no-one wanted to bring up the subject though everyone knows what's going on. I don't mean it's quite that dramatic, but it is noticeable."
With some expert local help, examples of Cyanea lamarcki were duly caught and Tom was able to study their habits and their exceptionally efficient propulsive system. Throughout this process, Dorothy throws in unexpected questions that provoke odd asides - such as the fact that we really don't know whether the jellyfish sleep - and philosophical musings on science and mystery. Scientists, Tom points out, like questions they can answer.
Deeper mysteries tend to get pushed aside.
It struck Dorothy, thinking about Delap's life, her assiduous scientific activities and her enduring, unrequited love for an English scientist who visited Valentia, that "we really know very little about her inner life". There is an implicit correspondence between unknowns in the video: "It seemed to me that we're dealing with two partial, fragmented states of information." We study the mysteries of the external world, but remain essentially mysterious ourselves.
In another video piece, Jellyfish Lake, shown at the Kerlin Gallery last year, Dorothy swims among dense clouds of non-lethal jellyfish on Palau. The main problem, she says, is that you have to be careful not to rip them apart as you swim. They are delicate.
"I've always loved jellyfish, even as a kid. They are so beautiful when they are in their own realm. You can't really look at them out in the air, they are reduced to nothing. I know many people would have an innate disgust for them - my sister hates them."
Originally she intended Medusae to give equal emphasis to three subjects, two of which now play a more peripheral role than Maude Delap. "Eventually I realised that I was most interested in Maude, because of the three she was the wild card." The other two are the extraordinary glass models of jellyfish made by the father and son team of Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka in Dresden, and the Villa Medusa in Jena, the home of zoologist Ernst Haechel, the walls of which are decorated with intricate drawings of jellyfish.
"The Blaschka models are incredible. As it happens, we have a very good collection of them in the Natural History Museum in Dublin. Only Geneva and Cardiff have comparable collections. And their models of flowers are in the Peabody Museum in Boston." She filmed a bunch of wild violets, superbly realised in glass, in the Peabody, because every year, on his birthday, Delap sent a bunch of violets to the man she'd fallen in love with.
Hence she is keen that Medusae be seen in Valentia, where it will be screened in Delap's local church over Easter weekend. It will also be seen in shows internationally. After that? "I think it may be the end of jellyfish for a while. Though having said that, I have so much footage, it's occurred to me that I may be able to use some of it for other things. So many pieces make sense on their own, they could exist independently of Medusae."
She is not bothered about exactly what kind of hybrid Medusae is. "Someone in the art world said to me: 'Are you editing it as an artwork'? That sort of pissed me off. As if I'd do it differently, as if there is a difference."
- Medusae, a 36-minute video by Dorothy Cross and Tom Cross, will be shown at the Church of Ireland, Knightstown, Valentia Island, Co Kerry, over Easter weekend, April 18th-20th, hourly from 3 p.m.-7 p.m.