A.A.Murakami

The Sun Sets in a Shell, 2026

A.A.Murakami's tapestry captures environmental transformations through the coded patterns of the zebra mussel, or Dreissena polymorpha, a species native to the Aral Sea. Inspired by scientific models of how patterns are created in nature, the artist duo developed an algorithmic knitting code that mimics the shells' biochemical formation. The tapestry shows triangular forms, spirals, waves, and fractal repetitions stretched, compressed, and disrupted. These natural mutations in the shell's pattern, caused by changes in temperature, salinity, acidity, and calcium levels, turn the mussels into time capsules of the sea. Long fascinated by the natural systems that lie at the origins and future of our existence, the artist duo employs both digital technology and tactile making methods to bring the speculative into the physical world.

The Sun Sets in a Shell considers zebra mussels artifacts of the Aral Sea's many moments in time, monumentalising their patterns to keep alive the logic of their formation.