Reclaimed Land: Part of the Climate Ecologies: Responses to the Panicocene group show

Reclaimed Land explores the complex environmental relationship experienced by the people who inhabit the nine Pacific atoll-islands that make up Tuvalu – the country predicted first to become uninhabitable due to sea level rise. Estimates suggest that by 2100 95% of Tuvalu’s land will be submerged at high tide. One solution offered is an annual scheme which allows 75 Tuvaluans to migrate to New Zealand. Another is the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project (TCAP) which provids engineering solutions to protect some of the islands from sea level rise and increasing soil salinity.

The installation uses predicted inundation data from the TCAP dashboard to create patterns projected onto a cast net like the ones used by Tuvalu’s indigenous fishermen. Another mesh-like material mimics the geotextiles used in the Coastal Adaptation Project’s giant sandbags. Light diffused through this material is derived from video footage from Tuvalu as well as abstract patterns representing the sea and geological futures of the islands. Apart from one synthesised drone sound, all the audio material is derived from location recordings collected in Tuvalu including church bells, singing, and sounds from nature.

All nine atoll-islands are represented short ‘scenes’ which randomly combine to a total duration of c.10 minutes.

Initial ideas for Reclaimed Land began at the Re-imagining Climate (Im)mobilities in the Panicocene conference at Durham University, May 2025.

Location sounds were recorded by Charles Rose (Chasseur de sons) and licenced from artlist.io

Bak Mejlvang, L. (2023) The Last Generation, Lasse Bak Mejlvang. Available at: https://www.bakmejlvang.com/thelastgeneration (Accessed: 6 September 2025).