The disappearing dolphins – an ephemeral sculptural installation in the Dunedin Octagon by contemporary artist Jemma Edenborough, June 2025
There are fewer than fifty-four Māui dolphin left in the world. They are now the rarest marine mammal in the world after their predecessor was officially ruled as extinct. Māui dolphin live off the West coast of Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island, and are poised to become extinct in our lifetime as we have failed to protect them. Their birth rate is not high enough to come back from this population size, they will soon be gone. This ephemeral sculpture consists of 54 (or less, have you counted them?) Māui dolphin cast in ice using moulds made from one original wooden dolphin I carved out of macrocarpa. The site of the now paved-over Star Fountain was chosen as it was demolished approximately 25 years after it was built and loved by locals, while the Māui dolphin have only had their own distinct classification since 2006 and may face a similar timeframe for their fate. 54 speaks to the preemptive grief of trying to save something that is too far gone already, to the feeling of helplessness at observing something important disintegrate right before your eyes.
For information about Māui dolphin conservation from the experts and what we can do to save our local Hectors dolphins from the same fate, including vital legislation changes in the fishing industry, please visit https://whaledolphintrust.org.nz/take-action/participate/, https://www.mauihectorsdolphins.org.nz, https://wwf.org.nz, and fundraising page https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-protect-maui-and-hectors-dolphins
Petitions everyone should immediately sign are as follows
Mandatory cameras on commercial fishing vessels
Ban trawl nets in shallow dolphin habitat waters
Protect Hector’s dolphins through your regional plan
Stop bottom trawling in dolphin habitats
This work uses mundane repetitive tasks of filling, freezing, removing, wrapping and re-filling moulds dozens of times to emphasise futility. I am freezing my fingertips and splashing water all over the floor and wasting plastic for weeks just so that the work can survive for just long enough to take a photograph of. Soon we will only have photographs of the living, breathing Māui too. Casting multiples of a form emphasises a poignant number – the estimated population remaining in the world of Maūi dolphin – and visually illustrates how few that actually is. The multiplicity of the work echoes pop repetition while the material is very much contemporary.
The materiality of the piece comes down to three facets; Ice, plastic and wood. The ice is ephemeral, more so with global warming than ever before, it will melt as the work is viewed. It is a transitional material moving from water to formed ice and back into water, shifting its energy through form. The ice represents the fleeting nature of something valuable that is slipping through our fingers. The plastic mould, while not visible in the final piece is still a large part of it, alludes to microplastics in water, non-renewable resources, imported materials and petroleum-based manufacturing. The PETG plastic is partially made from previously living carbon forms (dinosaurs, dolphins?) and speaks to man-made interference with the natural cycle of life – animals do not naturally decompose into usable plastic sheeting. The macrocarpa wood used to carve the original Māui dolphin is secondhand, recycled and sustainable. It’s a nod to traditional methods of creation, once upon a time I would have carved 54 wooden dolphins, but then we invented plastic and silicone and modern materials that have cut time and the value of craftsmanship down. The work 54 opens conversations about hypocrisy and nihilism in art. Does the end (exposure of a cause) justify the means (using plastic)? I’m not sure I have an answer to this.
While 54 is an ephemeral sculpture that was designed to melt and disappear completely while onlookers were unable to do anything to stop it, a direct representation of how I feel about the Māui dolphin, I have plans in the future to re-use the custom moulds to create pieces that will last longer than a few hours. It is possible I could recreate this ephemeral piece in ice again, it would take ten days to make this many a second time with four moulds. I will certainly be making more art in response to environmental and ecological subject matter that is dear to my heart in the future.
“54 is as complicated as you want to interpret it” the artist has stated. “It can be understood simply as a sadness of the possibility of losing a beautiful animal from existence, an experimentation of temporary materials, or a public outcry for legislative changes in the commercial fishing industry who are demonstrably the most culpable”
The work was publicly viewable from 4:15pm on Wednesday the 18th of June in the lower Octagon in Dunedin and while now melted, it exists in photographs and an accompanying poem.
Contact: Jemma Edenborough otepotirenaissance@gmail.com Instagram @otepoti_renaissance
A Dunedin artist has left 54 Māui dolphin sculptures made from ice to melt in the Octagon to draw attention to the species’ fast-approaching extinction.
Otago Daily Times coverage and interview here (paywalled)
