What to do when the water comes? This is the pointed comment posed by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro, the Australian representatives at the Venice Biennale 2009. The sculpture duo from Sydney jammed a sofa, table, pots and books under the high ceiling, firmly clamped only with battens and wedges using no screws (10 000 €). A sarcastic metaphor representing adaptation to the rising sea levels on floating houses in the Netherlands or the haggling for access to the mineral resources in the North Pole: a wobbly picture. It is different than you what might usually think. A few days after research showing that the Arctic is not only 30, but in five to ten years free of ice the installation spontaneously collapsed. Healy and Cordeiro have left the fragments naturally lying around.

Dry Rot

Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro

The contents of one room from a home, have been propped up on pieces of wood. Out of harms way; in case of the thaw, flood, and rising water levels, all objects will be pointing upwards, the highest point possible within the space. We recently participated in a residency in Sydney, and experienced having to place absolutely everything within our studio off the ground level, as the floodwater kept rising. This is a possible premonition of things to come, with global warming, and the melting of polar caps.