2024, in a seahorse farm (aquarium) in Tasmania, Australia

In March 2024, Regina Anzenberger traveled to Australia. Ever since taking her first trip there in 1989, her artistic work has been significantly inspired by the nature of this continent.

On the last day of her trip she ended up in a seahorse farm. It was founded by a biologist to breed seahorses for the Chinese market and to protect them in the wild. Unfortunately, this didn't work because they couldn't keep up with the prices in Asia. They are now sold for aquariums around the world and tours are given on site. This ancient creature is rarely seen in the wild. It was all the more astonishing that there are thousands of this species in large aquariums here.

'It wasn't until I looked through the pictures a second time that they became my muses. Because I hadn't noticed the concentrated look that they direct at the viewer outside the aquarium at first. Dismissed as a tourist attraction, I put the work aside. But it didn't take long for their connections to each other in the density of the aquarium to inspire and capture me in such a way that I developed a growing relationship with them. Finally, I read two books about seahorses and found the author Andrea Grill, who I asked to write more about these extraordinary creatures.' says Regina Anzenberger.

Why the seahorses are a kind of barometer for the seas, that the males are pregnant, that they adapt their color to the environment and can even change their gender in an emergency - Regina Anzenberger found all this in addition to the visual impression of the mass of these creatures between alien and unicorn fascinating in the large aquariums of the Seahorse Farm.