Video images of Venice filmed during the devastating Acqua Alta/high waters that flooded the city in November and December 2019 are projected onto sculptural abstractions of shells.

Venice is a treasure of Western Civilization, particularly the Renaissance. It also is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yet the city and the lives of its inhabitants have been severely impacted and physically altered by the Acqua Alta from climate change, rising seas, the Sirocco and Bora winds, lunar tides, extraction of resources, dredging of channels in waterways for cruise boats and the escalation of tourism. The changes in sea level due to these factors have shocked every island in the Venetian lagoon.

Video images of the city during the 2019 Acqua Alta are combined with a sculptural abstraction of a beautiful fossil shell, Malaptera Ponti, from the Jurassic period (200 - 145 million years ago) – a life form that also “drowned” and is now extinct.