Preserving Aquatic Bodies: Conservation, Alchemy, and Entropy

Artist and researcher Sasha Fishman shares her exploration of sculpture, marine waste, and ecological conservation. Through experiments with fish skin tanning, clearing and staining, and biochemical casting processes, she investigates the ways marine bodies are preserved, transformed, and understood. Drawing from visits to fish hatcheries in New York and Oregon, as well as studies of historical and contemporary preservation methods, Fishman examines how these practices reveal shifting relationships between humans, fish, and aquatic ecosystems. The lecture weaves together material experimentation, environmental research, and personal narrative to explore what it means to care for aquatic life in an era of ecological instability.

Foundations Lab Art + Science series