MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Last summer’s record-breaking heat resulted in the worst mass bleaching event ever documented in Florida, with thousands of corals lost forever.
While the region’s reefs fight to recover, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists have declared we are now in the grips of a global coral bleaching event. It’s the fourth time ever in the earth’s recorded history and the second time in the last 10 years.
For South Florida environmental artist Beatriz Chachamovits, it’s not just heartbreaking, it’s a call to action.
“Coral reefs everywhere in the world are bleaching together,” she explained. “Seventy-five percent of the Australian Barrier Reef is bleached 83% of the Brazilian reef is bleached, the Fakarava pass is completely white. There is a massive amount of pressure to on being able to convey this, and the timeframe that I have to convey this… because we’re running out of time.”
Last year’s regional bleaching event dealt a catastrophic blow to Florida’s barrier reef, the third largest in the world. Since the 1980s, Florida’s reef tract has lost 90% of its coral cover due to stony coral tissue loss disease and bleaching.
“To see the bleaching event we had last year was devastating,” Chachamovits said. “It was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen with my eyes.”
Even more alarming, scientists warn that climate change could wipe out 70% to 90% of all coral reefs on the planet by 2050 or when the Earth’s temperature increases 1.5 Celsius above preindustrial levels.
“My greatest hope is for people to fall in love with the ocean, so they can know it and protect it,” said Chachamovits.
It’s that mission that drives Chachamovits. Through her work, the Brazilian-born multimedia artist uses extensive scientific research to document what’s happening to these diverse marine ecosystems that for 15 years have inspired her creations.
“All of the mass bleaching events that have been happening since last year, and now it’s just pushing me to talk about the things that we can do and create exhibitions that promote healing,” she explained.
Her 2022 exhibit, “Into the Great Dying: The Steps We Take” at the Art and Cultural Center of Hollywood was a crushing indictment of what we’re doing to our planet. The interactive installation called on spectators to walk across a room covered with clay sculptures to destroy them. It was a five-year project that took four months to make, and only 30 minutes to demolish.
“I made people destroy it so that we can understand what’s actually happening,” she said.
“Do you think art moves the needle,” asked Local 10 Environmental Advocate and anchor Louis Aguirre.
“I think so, I think it has the power to reach deep into people’s hearts with no information,” Chachamovits responded.
Her latest work, “Heliotropic Seekers,” is much brighter, inspiring hope that we still have time to turn things around.
The brightly colored installation features plexiglass cutouts that hang from above, including native fish and corals like the Elkhorn and the Staghorn, two of the species that were almost wiped out completely during last summer’s bleaching.
“My work in a sense of bringing people under a passageway that is enchanted by corals and making them smile and think oh my god this ecosystem is still alive, and it’s right here…what am I doing about it…have I seen it… these are the kind of questions are important to create with the work,” she explained. “There are so many elements that are meant to create a sense of wonder and connect people to healthy tribe thriving and resilient corals.”
Local 10 News crews were there when art students from Miami Beach Senior High helped Chachamovitz with the installation by painting a mural using fish stencils that she taught them how to make.
“So the idea for the mural is for them to come together and create a biodiverse school of fish crossing the mural,” she said.
And for these young artists, it’s a chance to inspire a worldwide audience of visitors.
“Hopefully they (people) look at it and realize the impact they’re making on the environment,” reflected 10th grader Karla Estadella.
“Celebrating the reef is something that is so important,” Chachamovits said. “Even though it’s important to talk about the problems that they’re facing, we need to remember that they’re still alive and celebrate that life before they’re gone.”
You can see “Heliotropic Seekers” for yourself on Española Way now through May 26th. For more of Beatriz’s work and for information on upcoming exhibitions and classes, you can head over to her website by clicking here.