Cavitation Breathing Ocean : Izabela Pluta
“Water becomes both a material and a way of thinking through movement, instability and relation”.
—Izabela Pluta
Don’t miss this immersive installation at Newcastle’s Canoe Pool, where found sea floats gather and move with the tide to form an ever-shifting artwork. Swim alongside and move among the floating forms as they drift, gather and separate. Slow down, take a breath and experience this familiar location in a new way.
Collected from coastlines in Far North Queensland, the floats have travelled vast distances on ocean currents before washing ashore. Each carries signs of where it has travelled and how it has been used. Together, they also point to the growing environmental crisis of marine debris, carried by currents and accumulating along remote coastlines. Artist Izabela Pluta, born in Poland and based in Newcastle, draws on her own experience of migration and her connection to water as a swimmer and diver. Her work explores how water carries people, objects and histories across places, and how ideas of home and belonging can shift over time. The Canoe Pool itself was once known as the 'Map of the World Pool', with a large concrete map of the world rising through its waters. Pluta’s installation returns a different kind of map to this historic site—one drawn by ocean currents, movement and chance.
Accompanying the installation is a spoken-word sound work written and voiced by Astrida Neimanis, reflecting on the sea as a place of memory, connection and change—and on breathing as something we share with the watery world.
Presented across The Lock-Up and Newcastle's Canoe Pool, this large-scale project unfolds through two connected experiences: Cavitation, an exhibition at The Lock-Up, and Cavitation: Breathing Ocean, an interactive floating installation on the water. Together, they bring sculpture, photography, moving image, tapestry and sound into dialogue, exploring how tides, pressure, and migration shape our world and our lives.
Image caption: Portrait of Izabela Pluta by the Newcastle Canoe Pool. Photograph by Edwina Richards. Image courtesy the artist.
CANOE POOL PROGRAMS
For more information on the programs accompanying Cavitation and Cavitation: Breathing Ocean, please visit The Lock-Up website.
ACCESSIBILITY
A lifeguard will be on duty during operating hours. Children must be supervised by a parent or guardian at all times.
The Canoe Pool offers wheelchair access at the main entrance, accessible toilets, and designated accessible street parking. Limited public seating is available.
SENSORY & CONTENT WARNING
Suitable for all ages.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Cavitation and Cavitation: Breathing Ocean are major commissions initiated and led by The Lock-Up, Newcastle, presented in partnership with New Annual 2026. Izabela Pluta has been awarded a Creative Australia Visual Art Major Commission grant through the international co-commissioning partnership of The Lock-Up and TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Poland.
The Lock-Up and the project are supported by Creative Australia, Create NSW and New Annual 2026.
Collaborators and project partners include the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Adam Hulbert: sound artist, composer, researcher and performer, Astrida Neimanis, Ocean Seagull, Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Hunter Gatherer Network, Event Engineering, Heritage Stoneworks at the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure and AX Interactive.
Izabela Pluta is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert.
Collected from coastlines in Far North Queensland, the floats have travelled vast distances on ocean currents before washing ashore. Each carries signs of where it has travelled and how it has been used. Together, they also point to the growing environmental crisis of marine debris, carried by currents and accumulating along remote coastlines. Artist Izabela Pluta, born in Poland and based in Newcastle, draws on her own experience of migration and her connection to water as a swimmer and diver. Her work explores how water carries people, objects and histories across places, and how ideas of home and belonging can shift over time. The Canoe Pool itself was once known as the 'Map of the World Pool', with a large concrete map of the world rising through its waters. Pluta’s installation returns a different kind of map to this historic site—one drawn by ocean currents, movement and chance.
Accompanying the installation is a spoken-word sound work written and voiced by Astrida Neimanis, reflecting on the sea as a place of memory, connection and change—and on breathing as something we share with the watery world.
Presented across The Lock-Up and Newcastle's Canoe Pool, this large-scale project unfolds through two connected experiences: Cavitation, an exhibition at The Lock-Up, and Cavitation: Breathing Ocean, an interactive floating installation on the water. Together, they bring sculpture, photography, moving image, tapestry and sound into dialogue, exploring how tides, pressure, and migration shape our world and our lives.
Image caption: Portrait of Izabela Pluta by the Newcastle Canoe Pool. Photograph by Edwina Richards. Image courtesy the artist.
CANOE POOL PROGRAMS
For more information on the programs accompanying Cavitation and Cavitation: Breathing Ocean, please visit The Lock-Up website.
ACCESSIBILITY
A lifeguard will be on duty during operating hours. Children must be supervised by a parent or guardian at all times.
The Canoe Pool offers wheelchair access at the main entrance, accessible toilets, and designated accessible street parking. Limited public seating is available.
SENSORY & CONTENT WARNING
Suitable for all ages.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Cavitation and Cavitation: Breathing Ocean are major commissions initiated and led by The Lock-Up, Newcastle, presented in partnership with New Annual 2026. Izabela Pluta has been awarded a Creative Australia Visual Art Major Commission grant through the international co-commissioning partnership of The Lock-Up and TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Poland.
The Lock-Up and the project are supported by Creative Australia, Create NSW and New Annual 2026.
Collaborators and project partners include the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Adam Hulbert: sound artist, composer, researcher and performer, Astrida Neimanis, Ocean Seagull, Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Hunter Gatherer Network, Event Engineering, Heritage Stoneworks at the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure and AX Interactive.
Izabela Pluta is represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert.
