Vladimir Kanic is the creator of living algae sculptures that use spectators’ breath as food and convert it into oxygen while mitigating the effects of global climate emergency.

His world-building practice imagines the living sculptures as beacons of decarbonized future, where social and climate justice are collaborative public acts as essential as breathing.Kanic’s art practice is informed by his maritime heritage and free diving experience. He uses diving and breathing to access his cultural, ancestral, and personal worlds while exploring memories of the Earth’s geological time deposited within the bodies of living algae. As Earth’s principal carbon sinks, algae produce approximatively 70% of planetary oxygen while consuming gasses produced by the burning of Earth’s geological layers (such as coal, oil and gas). Kanic graduated OCAD University as the Governor General’s Academic Medal and Sir Edmund Walker Award recipient along with Newcomer Arts Award, Artist Project Emerging Artist Award, and InterAccess Media Prize. His living sculptures have been exhibited throughout North America and featured on TEDx talk platform.