This is an image made after a week underwater in the Raja Ampat archipelago of Indonesia, inspecting the complex and baffling world of creatures swarming over each other in the blue-green depths. Pictured here are two Dorid nudibranchs, or sea slugs, crawling over the shell of a Triton. Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites, meaning any two that encounter each other can produce offspring. They can also incorporate the stinging cells from hydroids (the fan-shaped cretures in the background) into their own bodies for defense against anything that might think about eating them. Lots to think about there.
This was carved from a circle of MDF at the Taring Padi compound in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and printed by hand on mulberry paper at Flight 64 studio in Portland.
