LOOK: Mural transforms marine biological research facility
Durban — Artist Giffy has painted a deep-sea giant squid mural to inspire ocean curiosity at the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr).
“At Saambr a lot of activities take place underwater and they have a fantastic team of divers ensuring that exhibits and pools are clean, animals are fed, systems are maintained and research is being conducted. Our dive team spends between 600 and 800 hours underwater each month,” Saambr’s Ann Kunz said.
“With the fantastic support from Oceans Alive Conservation Trust, Giffy the artist decided that our dive room should showcase a deep sea diver on an adventure observing a giant squid, some glowing lantern fish and a comb jelly (with the shadow of a beautiful hammerhead shark far away in the surface layers).”
Kunz said that art has the power to evoke emotions, spark creativity, inspire curiosity, drive dialogue and can serve as an educational tool, “and our new deep sea wall is already contributing to all of these benefits since it is facing the Addington Primary School playground”.
“Giffy transformed it from a rather drab wall to an exciting deep water scene which the kids absolutely love,” Kunz said.
“Break time for the learners is far more exciting with conversations around these strange deep-sea creatures.”
Explaining the mural, Kunz said that giant squid are some of the largest invertebrates on Earth and can grow up to 14m in length and have the largest eyes to have ever existed. The lantern fish is a deep sea fish with the ability to produce light through bioluminescence. Comb jellies have cilia along their bodies that create rainbow light through diffraction.
“What a wonderful world the deep ocean is,” Kunz said.
“Big appreciation to the Saambr divers, our amazing educators for inspiring kids, our technical team for all the assistance, Giffy, the greatest ocean-loving wall artist, and Oceans Alive Conservation Trust for the sponsorship,” Kunz added.
Earlier this month, Giffy, on his Facebook page wrote that he was working on a life-size giant squid in a deep water dive scene for @oceansalivetrainingacademy in their dive room at the entrance to @sa_marine_biological_research.
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