Roxy Mathew Koll Climate Research Lab

Art Highlights

Gone with the Heat
“Gone with the Heat”, an embroidered story of coral reef bleaching under marine heatwaves.Marine heatwaves, extremely warm waters in the ocean, strip off the colorful protective membrane of the corals, bleaching and killing them. As corals die, the marine biodiversity and fishes depending them also disappear, making our oceans an ecological desert.

"Gone with the Heat", an embroidered story of coral reef bleaching under marine heatwaves, at the International Indian Ocean Science Conference 2024, Lombok, Indonesia

Artwork executed by the Kolls and exhibited @ the International Indian Ocean Science Conference 2024, Lombok, Indonesia.

Hawksbill sea turtle, blue sea sponge, kelp, and sea grass, embroidered

Hawksbill turtles are critically endangered sea turtles. They feed on sea sponge, kelp and sea grass.

Hawksbill sea turtle, blue sea sponge, kelp, and sea grass under marine heatwave, embroidered

Marine heatwaves bleach the sponges, wither the kelp and grass — and the sea turtles disappear…

The coral and the marine species in the artwork are from the Indian Ocean region and found in the coral triangle. The artwork is hand embroidery by Juby Aleyas Koll (Sarah) on canvas, along with water color, acrylic, beads, and sand from the Indian Ocean. Each coral and fish species are depicted with different hand embroidery stitches.

Embroidery Stitcches and details used in "Gone with the Heat" artwork

 Sam Illingworth on our MJO research
Sam Illingworth recites his poem “Warming Clouds”, based on our MJO research which appeared in the journal Nature.

Between synthetic, parallel lines
drawn across artificially constructed
maps, the clouds begin to form.
Climbing upwards like giant anvils of
cotton candy, a trick of the scattering
light projecting apparitions across the skies.

Oscillating between imagined landforms,
these vessels of rain and ice drift
tirelessly across tranquil seas and raging
oceans. Taking residence across
the continents, rising and falling
with the unseen breath of their creator.

Peripheral forces nip and pull at the
creases of this translucent drapery,
driving contrast that redefines the
transience of their approach. A warming
touch that contracts and expands
without caution or reproach.

Changing patterns reverberate across
the cloudscape, as thunder shakes the
firmament and drought stalks the land.
Reflected dreams shimmer across their
surface, the abstract shapes a portent
of what is yet to come.

 Sarah’s Hand Embroidery on our MJO research
Sarah’s Hand Embroidery stitches our MJO research, which appeared in the journal Nature, into an embroidery piece.

MJO Climate Change Sarah's Hand Embroidery