Underwave represents successive “arrivals” onto our shores, from Sligo’s earliest Neolithic settlers through to modern multiculturalism. The project will involve life sized sculpture creations by Bettina Seitz being exhibited underwater for a ten day period, filmed underwater and streamed live daily and viewable on all social media platforms.

Underwave draws inspiration from the Nine Queens landscape art project (2019) for which Bettina was a contributing artist, and from her 30-year career creating site-specific sculpture. During the Nine Queens project, a conversation with Ann Ruddy, who is involved in seaweed conservation, has led Bettina to her subsequent research into successful underwater sculpture installations around the world such as the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park in the Caribbean and the Dahab Underwater Museum in Egypt. These projects engaged local communities and communal expertise in their realisation, with positive impacts for marine life and the promotion of ecological tourism.  A leave-no-trace policy will govern all aspects of this project and this final phase sees the prompt removal of the sculptures. At this point it is important to highlight that all materials used in the construction of the sculptures will be of organic composition.

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.