- Title: Floating Ghost
- Artist: Jacqueline Gribbin
- Region: Darwin
- Art Centre: Independent artist
- Medium: Etching, relief
- Collection:
- Dimensions: 25 x 19.5 cm
- Edition Size: 12
- Price ($AUD): $ 280
Artwork Story
This work is number seventeen in the 2017-2018 project Dear Gilbert,…. Song for the Ichthyologist, which forms twenty limited editions and four unique works.
The Ghost Pipefish or Delicate Ghost Pipefish (Solenostomus leptosoma) that appears in this work features in the 1958 book The Sea-Horse And Its Relatives by Gilbert Whitley and Joyce Allan as well as Whitley’s Marine Fishes of Australia. It also appears in The Australian Museum Magazine Vol. XII. No.9 published in 1958, where it is stated as being the first Ghost Pipefish caught in Australia.
This species is very well camouflaged and floats almost motionlessly with its head facing downwards, allowing it to suck up small crustaceans with its long snout.
Jacqueline F Gribbin
Relief block courtesy of the Australian Museum