Coral Projects: Everglades Art Lab

Can art heal what humanity has wounded? Five artists go deep into the endangered Everglades to ask an even deeper question: can nature itself be a collaborator in art creation?

Coral Projects: Everglades Art Lab follows five visionary artists on a breathtaking journey into the heart of one of North America’s most endangered ecosystems — the Florida Everglades — where they dare to redefine visual art practices by forging a profound co-creative partnership with the natural world.

As humanity reckons with the consequences of the Anthropocene, witness these transformative, leave-no-trace art practices that inspire hope and ignite action toward a sustainable future. Can visual artists make art in true collaboration with nature — not merely alongside it, but with it as a living co-creator? This is the question Coral Projects: Everglades Art Lab sets out to answer.

Eco-artist, spiritual coach and Founding Artist of Coral Projects, Vanessa Albury, brought four artists with her deep into the estuarine wilderness of the Everglades — including Brooklyn-based sculptor Rachel Frank and Norwegian collective LOCUS (Thale Fastvold and Tanja Thorjussen) — to create site-specific, eco-friendly, temporary installations with the wetlands, undertaken with the blessing of Miccosukee Tribe Reverend Houston R. Cypress. Every material used was either harvested from the site itself or designed to leave a neutral if not positive ecological footprint.

In a world on the brink of environmental collapse of our own making, can art heal our fractured relationship with the living planet? Discover the answer in this captivating and quirky documentary — one that will leave you inspired by the awe of co-creating with nature and ready to act for the good of all life, including our only home: Mother Earth.

The film was originally presented in a forest of native South Florida plants as a Special Project at Untitled Art Fair Miami in December 2019, sponsored by Benrubi Gallery. It has since screened as an Official Selection at the Meliora International Film Festival (NYC, 2024,) as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s Insights Digital program (2024,) and in various art exhibitions including Eco-Urgency: Now or Never at Lehman College Art Gallery and Oolite Arts for Healing Nature curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud (Miami, 2024.)

  • Vanessa Albury
    Director
  • Vanessa Albury
    Writer
  • Vanessa Albury
    Producer
  • Vanessa Albury
    Key Cast
    "Self, Narrator"
  • Rachel Frank
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Reverend Houston R. Cypress
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Thale Fastvold
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Tanja Thorjussen
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • InsightsDigital at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024
    Edinburgh
    United Kingdom
    August 2, 2024
    United Kingdom premier
    Official Selection
  • Untitled Art Fair
    Miami, Florida
    United States
    December 3, 2019
    North American Premiere
    Special Project
  • Meliora International Film Festival
    New York, NY
    United States
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Vanessa Albury

Vanessa Albury is a New York City-based eco-visual artist, performance artist, spiritual coach, Akashic Records reader, and international speaker whose practice sits at the intersection of contemporary art, ecological healing, and spiritual transformation.

She is the Founding Artist and Director of Coral Projects — the world’s first eco-friendly underwater art exhibition program — creating ceramic and sculptural works from 100% ocean-friendly, eco-friendly, carbon-sink materials to support regrowth of filter species including coral, oysters, and mussels in waterways around the world. Sites to-date include Italy, South Africa, the UAE, and the USA. The 2022 NYFA/NYSCA Deutsche Bank Fellow and holder of an MFA in Studio Art from NYU, Albury has dedicated her practice to healing the relationship between humans and the planet the fun and inspiring way, with art.

Her sculptural photography, ceramics, installation and performance work have been exhibited in solo and group shows internationally for over 25 years. Ken Johnson of the NY Times has called her work “haunting.” Press coverage spans The Guardian, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, Frieze Magazine, Nylon, La Repubblica, Candid Magazine, among others. Solo exhibitions include Rewilding a Painted Ocean (funded by the Foundation for Contemporary Art), Shadowgraphs (Benrubi Gallery), and Arctic, Future Relics (NurtureArt). Her biodegradable eco-mural Porthole Waves (Svalbard) from Stream to Sea’s last remaining elements are currently on view on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, as sloughs off the building and it returns to the soil.

Albury’s performance work Love Being — a three-act healing edu-tainment performance has been presented at galleries and studios in NYC and Miami. Coral Projects: Everglades Art Lab screened as an Official Selection at the Meliora International Film Festival (NYC, 2024) and as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s Insights Digital program (2024). The film was originally presented as a Special Project at Untitled Art Fair Miami 2019, sponsored by Benrubi Gallery. Albury speaks to audiences globally on the healing power of art, ecology, and spiritual practice, and hosts the podcast The Power We Hold and the Youtube Channel Love with Vanessa.

“My purpose in this lifetime is for healing for people and the planet through art and the oceans. I’m so blessed to learn how to be a better steward of our only home, planet Earth.”
Albury exhibits her sculptural photography, video, ceramics and installation artwork in solo and group shows internationally. Ken Johnson of the NY Times calls her work “haunting.” Her work is reviewed in The Guardian, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, Frieze Magazine, Nylon and Candid Magazine. Recent solos shows include Rewilding a Painted Ocean funded by the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Shadowgraphs (Benrubi Gallery) and Arctic, Future Relics (NurtureArt.) Her solo All Things That Are, Are Light and Soot (Quappi Projects, Louisville) is covered in-depth by Insider Louisville and Ruckus Louisville. Coral Projects: Everglades Art Lab was a Special Project feature of UNTITLED Art Fair 2019 in Miami presenting a video of site-specific, eco-friendly art installation in the Everglades with th blessing of Miccosukee Reverend Houston Cypress. Her biodegradable, eco-friendly mural Porthole Waves (Svalbard) from Stream to Sea is on view now on Manhattan’s LES. Albury’s work has been featured in outlets around the world such as Nylon Magazine, The Guardian, La Repubblica, the Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, the NY Times to name a few. Albury’s podcast called The Power We Hold marks her journey to becoming a better ally to people of all our beautiful difference and steward to the planet.

Albury says, "My purpose in this lifetime is for healing for people and the planet through art and the oceans. I’m so blessed to learn how to be a better steward of our only home, planet Earth."

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Can contemporary visual artists make art in true collaboration with nature — not just alongside it, but with it as a co-creator?

This is the question I set out to investigate when I, eco-artist and Founding Artist of Coral Projects Vanessa Albury, led four artists deep into the marine and estuarine wilderness of the Florida Everglades. I brought Brooklyn-based sculptor Rachel Frank and Norwegian collective LOCUS (Thale Fastvold and Tanja Thorjussen) for three weeks into the wetlands to create site-specific, eco-friendly, temporary art installations — undertaken with the blessing and guidance of Miccosukee Tribe Reverend Houston R. Cypress of Love the Everglades.

Coral Projects: Everglades Art Lab is the result of our collective inquiry. We asked: How does one engage the animals and plants of a wild ecosystem with art that honors their wellbeing? How do we create work that is conscious of our oneness with all life? What materials are truly eco-friendly — leaving no trace or, better yet, a positive impact on wildlife? How do we play this game of art and life in celebration of creation rather than in spite of it?

These questions are not only aesthetic — they are urgent. They are the same questions driving every dimension of my practice, from Coral Projects’ underwater eco-sculptures rewilding filter species across the Ionian Sea and beyond, to my performance work exploring healing for audiences through energetic and sensory experience.

The day after we completed filming, I presented this film in a forest of native South Florida plants as a Special Projects feature of Untitled Art Fair Miami in December 2019, sponsored by Benrubi Gallery. I wrapped the plants in natural-fiber burlap; viewers rested on a sustainably forested hardwood bench I built that week in Miami. What happened next moved me deeply: I heard sighs of joy and relief as fairgoers stepped into our installation — a physical and emotional exhale from the noise of the art world and the weight of the climate crisis.

Even the simple idea that artists were exploring how to create in harmony with nature brought tears, laughter, and gratitude. I watched sparks of inspiration light up viewers’ eyes. Since then, the film has traveled to the Meliora International Film Festival (NYC, 2024) and Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s Insights Digital program (2024), continuing to move audiences toward that same spark.

We only have one home. If artists can create in true partnership with the living world, so can you. That is the invitation of this film.