Diatoms and Kandinsky

Tiny iridescent crystals, a play of lights, like a traditional farandole dance of colour in a great blue sea. These are single-celled algae, diatoms. This phytoplankton lives below the surface of the sea using light to photosynthesize, produce energy and release oxygen.

Oxygen first released into the blue sea and into the blue sky so very long ago, 3 billion years ago, through the photosynthetic activity of cyanobacteria. Oxygen that we breathe, so essential to human life.

Oxygen extracted by cyanobacteria from the sea. The sea that renders our Earth, viewed from space, the “Blue Planet”

Blue as in sea. Blue as in sky. The sky of this other farandole. A farandole of little figurines of colour, like a dance of animals, plants and personas in a state of weightlessness... This is a painting by Vassily Kandinsky, Bleu de ciel, (Sky blue).