Story of the Piece: Surge

There is a moment just before a ray breaks the surface — a gathering of energy, a decision made in water. Surge captures that moment.

I have watched rays my whole life, Port Phillip Bay as a child. Stingrays gliding along the sandy bottom at Clifton Beach, just minutes from where I live - you see them on an ordinary walk, if you're paying attention. Manta rays in Bali, moving through the water with that particular unhurried grace that makes everything else seem frantic by comparison.

There is something about the way a ray moves that feels like a lesson in how to exist in the world - completely fluid, completely itself, completely unbothered.

The driftwood arch that holds this piece was found on the shores of Far North Queensland in the aftermath of Cyclone Jasper in late 2023. Weathered, curved, shaped by water long before this piece existed. It knew what it wanted to become.

A single manta ray rises through a hand-sculptured wave and light, lifted from a tide of blue glass and crystal that glows from within. Glass starfish and shells are embedded in the base — the shoreline that the ray has always known.

Materials: Locally sourced driftwood, blue glass pebbles, crystals, hand-painted manta ray, hand-sculptured resin wave, glass starfish and shells, coastal resin, timber base, USB lighting.

Dimensions:  70cm (L) × 41cm (H)

Price: $1200