SONGS IN THE OCEAN
Songs in the Ocean video delves into the concept of becoming oceanic and returning our human bodies to the vast expanse of water and the web of interspecies connections, particularly the bond between whales and humans. The work explores whale culture and the complexities of water, as well as the origins of life and the slow unfolding of evolution amidst an increasingly unstable environment. Whales are mysterious creatures to humans – their culture and reality remain largely unknown, yet their lives are constantly disrupted by humans. The oceans can teach us about the insignificant place that humans occupy in the grand scheme of things, where every action has inescapable consequences.
The inspiration for this work came from the 'Leviathan' myth. This ancient word means 'to twist' or 'to encircle'. It denotes a whale-like sea serpent. This creature is described as being hundreds of kilometres long. It has eyes that shine like two suns. It could expel such intense heat from its mouth that it would cause all the Earth's waters to boil. The Leviathan embodies chaos and threatens to annihilate everything in its path. In the modern world, humans have become the new Leviathans of the oceans, wreaking havoc through pollution, noise, ocean warming and acidification. 'Songs in the Oceans' reimagines the ancient myth by telling a story of bridging the interspecies gap, rediscovering wonder, and learning to become oceanic.
Full HD video 22:35 min, 2025
Songs in the Ocean video, sound installation, Helsinki Biennale 2025
WATERS AS PORTALS
All waters are portals to all waters.
In this sensuous and polyphonic installation, sacred springs and rivers emerge as living archives of time, grief, care, and transformation. The work opens up the deep emotional, historical, and geopolitical currents of water. With water as both portal and storytelling being, the installation invites a journey through emotional and geographical layers – from the personal to the collective, from contemporary experience to ancient mythical connections. Roover explores rivers and springs as living archives that carry both individual narratives and intergenerational connections.
Drawing on her background in painting, Roover translates this into the visual language of the video essay, adding a non-linear and cyclical approach – like the very movement of water itself. She creates space for reflection on the many layers of meaning embedded in water. One part of Waters as Portals presents a video essay, guiding the viewer through sacred springs and rivers. The second part features a bowl containing water collected from these visited sites – appearing as a mirror, a reservoir, and a threshold space.
The work challenges modern understandings of water as a neutral resource, reduced to H₂O. Roover engages with water as a cyclical and sensuous flow, a channel for memory and transformation. She connects the sacred landscapes of the past with contemporary cultural and embodied experiences, revealing how water shapes and carries relationships. In Roover’s hands, water re-emerges as a permeable sensor, a living archive, and a prism for understanding. She shows how site-specific and spiritual knowledge unfolds through myths, patterns, and experiences, rather than through singular explanations. Waters as Portals is a poetic reminder that water – in its cyclical, life-giving, and ever-shifting nature – continues to connect us to ancestors, to one another, and to the still-unknown currents of the future.
HD video installation duration 30 min
Ceramic bowl, collaboration with waters from:
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Ireland.
From 2024 -
Installation views from The Waters Tales exhibition,
Rønnebæksholm Kunsthalle, Denmark
2025
