The Box’s Planet Ocean exhibition gets an extended closing date and impressive new artwork

13th September 2024

The Box’s Planet Ocean exhibition has had a major refresh this week – and had its closing date extended by two months!

The exhibition explores our enduring relationship with the sea; highlighting the ground breaking research and activism that’s taking place in and around the city, and signposting people to the many ways we can all make small changes to help safeguard its future.

It’s proven popular with visitors since it opened earlier this year, thanks to its timely subject matter and combination of natural history specimens, objects from everyday life, works of art and contributions from local organisations and individuals. It will now remain on display until the end of Sunday 27 April 2025, which means that people who visit The Box during the Easter holidays will also get the chance to experience it.

The show has also been given an eye-catching update this week and now includes a beautiful large-scale installation called All the Seas by Devon-based artist Tania Kovats.

Kovats’ ambitious work is formed from a large four-tiered shelving unit stacked with more than 360 glass bottles each containing water from a different stretch of ocean. The water was collected by Kovats plus a number of other people, all of whom were drawn in by the idea of bringing the waters of the world to one place.

Tania Kovats, artist, said: "All the Seas is a collection of sea water from around the world, generously gifted to the project by a global network of sea water collectors. Though there are many different bodies of water present in the artwork, I think of All the Seas as a work about how water connects us - there is only one water on this beautiful blue planet. Our planetary health depends on the health of our waters and our collective commitment to respect and value them."

Where a sea is missing in All the Seas, an empty bottle sits in the space in the hope that it will be filled in future. To mark its inclusion in the Planet Ocean exhibition, Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans has added a bottle of water collected from Plymouth Sound’s National Marine Park.

Tudor Evans, leader, Plymouth City Council said: “This is a stand out piece of art in a brilliant exhibition and I’m really pleased to have been able to play a small part in adding something to it which will forever connect it with our city.”

Kovats works across sculpture, drawing, writing and installation to explore our relationship with the natural world. Bodies of water are a key area of interest for her, and her investigation into oceans, seas, rivers and changing coastal rock formations are referenced in many of her artworks.

All the Seas is the second work by her to go on display in Plymouth in connection with the Planet Ocean exhibition. Bleached, a haunting sculpture that responds to the beauty and fragility of coral in the world’s ecosystem, can be seen on The Box’s first floor balcony.

Sarah Marden, natural history curator at The Box said: “We can’t wait for our visitors to see and be wowed by All the Seas when they visit Planet Ocean. It’s such a great fit for the exhibition – a hugely participatory work of art that explores the idea of us all being part of one connected ocean. It questions why we create barriers and territory by naming individual seas. In reality, the ocean has no physical borders.”

Planet Ocean featuring All the Seas by Tania Kovats, will run until 27 April 2025. The exhibition is open from 10am-5pm Tuesday to Sunday and selected Bank Holidays. Entry is free.