Revisiting the reef off Lombok’s Senggigi Beach after an absence of many years, Indonesian artist Teguh Osternik was shocked to find that the corals he had once explored as a diver had all but disappeared. His response? To rebuild the reef through a combination of art and science. Teaming up with the Gili Eco Trust, which has used Biorock structures (essentially steel frameworks electrified with low-voltage currents) to regenerate reefs around the nearby Gili islands, Osternik has embarked on what he calls an ARTificial reef park, creating scrap-metal installations that, once submerged, wired to floating solar panels, and seeded with pieces of rescued coral, will grow into a new coral garden. His first structures have just been planted off the coast from the Senggigi’s De Quake Restaurant and should only take a few months to establish themselves. Looking ahead, Osternik hopes to recruit a curator to oversee the addition of other artists’ work to his underwater gallery. –David Tse
This article originally appeared in the June/July 2014 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Reef Relief”).