The incoming tide washed over the sculpture, leaving behind a deposit of clay, shells and snails. Bonanno embedded the unexpected offering into the surface of his piece and burned it, turning ocean debris into a petrified Tide Water Fossil that the tide continues to revisit and wash over twice each day. All these works are transient. Relics , a whalebone-like structure made of oak and weighted with stones, was first transmuted by burning, then left to interact with wind and tide. Grass grows between the crevices of his sculptures.
Vines decay and branches fall.
The rope holding things together splits and frays. Nature brings new life to the work as well. A series of Floating Islands launched in the Copenhagen Botanical Gardens has become a home for endangered terrapins. Over time, the willows will begin to grow. Wind, insects and birds will take care of the sowing on the surface, and the roots of the willow, growing down to the bottom, will become a new habitat for fish and frogs.