Artists: Meganne Rosen x Emily Budd

Project Statement: Lost songs of the horseshoe crabs echo adrift through the Holocene sea. This piece combines Meganne’s painterly explorations of the ocean floor and Emily’s sculptural investigations of multi-species survival in the Anthropocene. Horseshoe crabs have powerful blue blood that holds a secret the pharmaceutical industry has been exploiting for many years. This unassuming, alien-looking crab has survived multiple mass extinction cycles and is one of the most ancient species still alive today. Recently, scientists have doubled down on pillaging the blue crustacean blood in their search for a solution to covid-19. This effort is the latest human intervention to push the long-lived horseshoe crabs to the brink of becoming endangered. They’ve survived massive extinction crises in the past, this collaboration asks how they survive us.