Meditation Ocean Constellation
Six-channel video installation with ambient score, guided meditations, seating, public programming
67 minutes, looped
Meditation Ocean has a dedicated website. Click here to view.
Meditation Ocean works for human and more-than-human well-being through oceanic meditation and responsive terrestrial action. An accessible "indoor ocean," M.O. is a video installation, a place to gather, focus, or rest, and a catalyst for public engagement—all supported by the installation's "immersed" oceanscape and sound environment. The project foregrounds the interdependence of individual and communal healing and the nonduality of the social and the environmental.
In M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow, the premiere iteration of the project, a group of eight divers spent four days in Biscayne National Park in the Florida Keys. Experimenting with notions of buoyancy and what they offer to terrestrial concepts of “grounding” in meditative practice–along with new modes of weightless embodiment–the divers rose from the seabed to float in meditation. This “underwater meditation retreat” was both a live experience and a video production.
M.O. launched with an exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, from February–July 2023, with plans being made for touring. The project’s far-flung oceanscape catalyzed a series of workshops, events, and programming connected to hyperlocal issues, which you can read more about at the link below.
Meditation Ocean is supported by the Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Studio Program and Artist Residency Award in Film/Video.
Read about Meditation Ocean in Artforum and the exhibition's Gallery Guide.
Follow progress on Instagram @meditation_ocean.
The M.O. Turtlegrass Meadow score is now an album. You can listen here.
Updated: 2/27/2023
February 21, 2023: Pages: Art & Writing Engagement, Program for area high school students
"Pages is an innovative multidisciplinary program that supports literacy and writing skills through the exploration of contemporary art, film, and performing arts. This free program pairs educators and artists from the Wexner Center with high school teachers from across central Ohio in the planning of writing-based experiential learning opportunities for students. Pages students visit the center to experience gallery exhibitions, a performance, and a film and respond to those experiences in writing."
Meditation Ocean Constellation Artist/Director Hope Ginsburg visits four Ohio high school classes via Zoom, led by Wexner Center Learning & Public Practice educator Sarah Robison and Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour. Over the course of the month, each high school class has a field trip to experience Meditation Ocean at the Wexner Center.
March 4—April 8, 2023: Breathe: An Artist-led Meditation Series, All sessions free and open to the public
"Explore how meditation connects breath, body, and creativity in this monthlong series programmed by Learning & Public Practice at the Wexner Center in conjunction with Meditation Ocean. Artists and meditation practitioners Hope Ginsburg, Anaïs Duplan, and Cadine Navarro each lead two meditation sessions or 'chapters' that explore breathing and their respective artistic practices. Held virtually or in person, the sessions are designed to facilitate thinking, asking how meditation and breathing techniques can shape our approach to work, our relationship with the environment, and our sense of place in the world."
Hope Ginsburg: Saturday March 4th, Saturday March 11th, 11:00am-12:30pm eastern
Link for more information and to register
"These Breathe chapters offer a dive into mindfulness for both beginning and experienced meditators. Along with Ginsburg, you’ll explore connections between two ecosystems: the far-flung coral reef found in the Meditation Ocean installation (March 4) and a local site, the Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, which we’ll visit as a group on March 11. Intention-setting, inquiry, and exchange are part of each afternoon, along with the invitation to deepen your relationship with our environment through continued meditation practice and engagement."
Anaïs Duplan: Saturday March 18th, Saturday March 25th, 11:00am-12:30pm eastern
Link for more information and to register
"Whether you are a visual artist, writer, musician, or arts worker, your work requires you to channel your inner knowing. But the challenges of being an arts professional often run counter to our ability to really foster our creativity. Through mindfulness practice, Duplan leads the group in two virtual sessions, nurturing our connections with our bodies and our innate sense of imagination."
Cadine Navarro: Saturday April 1st, Saturday April 8th, 11:00am-12:30pm eastern
Link for more information and to register
"Closing out the Breathe series, Cadine Navarro welcomes participants into her immersive installation It Sounds Like Love at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, where you’ll walk barefoot on its smooth, etched glass images. This guided indoor/outdoor meditative experience will encourage you to develop a different relationship to the sensory world."
March 9, 2023: Artist Talk with Meditation Ocean Constellation members Hope Ginsburg, Jennifer Lange & Alexis McCrimmon, 5:30 pm eastern, Free and open to the public
Link for more information coming soon
"Join artist Hope Ginsburg, Film/Video Studio Curator Jennifer Lange, and Studio Editor Alexis McCrimmon in dialogue around the making of Meditation Ocean. Experience the work in the galleries, then go behind the scenes with members of the Meditation Ocean Constellation, learning how it was developed, produced, and edited in collaboration with the Wex’s Film/Video Studio. The speakers demystify the process, discuss the importance of lifelong learning and inquiry, and share in moments of mindfulness." This event is produced by the Department of Learning & Public Practice at the Wexner Center.
March 28, 2023: Art-Sci Exchange: Meditation Ocean and Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, Invitation-only program
"This program invites learners of all kinds, including educators, scientists, museum workers, and artists to consider how we may connect with and learn from the earth and from each other through experiential explorations of both art and science. At the center of this experience is an opportunity for artists, educators, and scientists to explore a shared interest in climate science research."
March 29, 2023: Expanded Classroom: A Dialogue with Meditation Ocean and Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, Program for area high school students
"Science and art come together to consider the impact and possible solutions to climate change across the globe in this Expanded Classroom program. At the Wex, dive into Meditation Ocean with artist Hope Ginsburg to explore the possibilities of art and mindfulness to inspire individual and social change. At Byrd Polar Climate Research Center, take a trip to the polar regions to unearth what science tells us about the future of our climate. Together with a partner school, students will convene over lunch to talk about their experience and consider the ways that art and science intertwine to address the climate crisis."
March 30, 2023: Artist Talk with Meditation Ocean Constellation Artist/Director Hope Ginsburg, 2:00-4:00 pm eastern, Free and open to the public
Link for more information
Artist Talk sponsored by the Humanities Institute Living Art Eco Lab Working Group (2-3 pm) followed by a Visioning Series session (3-4 pm) with interested participants, including the working group.
"Join us in welcoming Hope Ginsburg, artist in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts, as she shares a presentation of her work. Ginsburg is an interdisciplinary, project-based artist whose work addresses climate justice and environmental healing. Her work has been shown at major national venues, including MoMA PS1, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, and many others. She is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, and her work, Meditation Ocean, is currently on exhibit at the Wex.
This event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be provided. If you require accommodations to attend this event, including the need to attend virtually, please send your request to art@osu.edu."
April 20, 2023: Director's Dialogue on Art & Social Change, 6:00 pm eastern, Free and open to the public
Link for more information
Join artists Hope Ginsburg, Cadine Navarro, and Anaïs Duplan for this year’s Director’s Dialogue—the culmination of our new meditation series, Breathe. Programmed in conjunction with the exhibition Meditation Ocean, our featured artists each led two meditation sessions connecting breath, body, environment, and creativity. The artists will gather in our Film/Video Theater to reflect on the series and the ways meditation and breathing techniques influence their respective artistic practices and connect them to the earth. The conversation is moderated by Dora Kamau, a meditation artist and teacher for the Headspace app. A Q&A with the artists follows the talk."