Katel Delia highlights ocean crisis through underwater art
'Threads of What Remains' is both a record of what has been lost and a call to action
French-Maltese artist and experienced diver Katel Delia is using her latest exhibition, Threads of What Remains, curated by Melanie Erixon, to spotlight the escalating environmental threats facing the world’s oceans.
Blending photography with delicate embroidery, the exhibition presents a visual exploration of marine degradation caused by pollution, overfishing and climate change.
Delia, who has lived in Malta since 2016, has been diving for nearly three decades. Her firsthand encounters with underwater environments inform much of her artistic practice. In this latest body of work, she documents the stark transformation of the marine landscape – from once-thriving coral reefs teeming with life to vast stretches of ocean floor now devoid of biodiversity.
Harmful Abandonment I, 2015The artist’s background is rooted in visual storytelling. A graduate of the Beaux-Arts in Rennes, Delia began her career in digital media before turning to installation-based art that often merges photography, sculpture and writing. Her work frequently investigates how traces of the past manifest in the present, particularly in the context of displacement and memory.
In Threads of What Remains, Delia stitches topographical lines and seabed contours onto her underwater photographs. These embroidered elements echo the shapes of threatened coastlines and fragile marine structures, acting as metaphors for the delicate connection between humans and the ocean. The threads also suggest a deeper narrative – one of loss, fragility and the urgent need for environmental stewardship.
Net Loss I, 2025The exhibition examines destructive fishing practices such as bottom-trawling, which severely damages seabed habitats and releases carbon stored in marine sediments. It also highlights the danger of abandoned fishing nets, often referred to as “ghost nets”, which continue to trap and kill marine animals long after being discarded. Some estimates suggest these nets, if connected, could encircle the planet multiple times.
Delia’s artistic work has gained international recognition. She received the CAP Prize for Contemporary African Photography and the Maghreb Photography Awards, and her installations have been exhibited across France, Malta and Switzerland.
Shroud Vs Protection, 2023Previous solo exhibitions include Malta – Tunis – Marseille (2021) and Familja migrAzzjoni (2017) at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta. Her immersive photo installation The Last Breath was shown at the Circulation(s) Festival in Paris and was shortlisted for several Maltese art awards.
Drawing from her extensive diving experience, Delia contrasts personal memories of vibrant marine ecosystems with current realities marked by collapse and disappearance. Threads of What Remains is both a record of what has been lost and a call to action, urging viewers to reconsider their relationship with the ocean and to advocate for its protection.
The exhibition is open to the public and invites visitors to witness not only the sea’s haunting beauty but also its growing vulnerability.
Threads of What Remains by Katel Delia, curated by Melanie Erixon, is showing at the Wignacourt Museum, Rabat, until July 26.