Distinguished UNSW Art & Design graduate Janet Laurence's Deep Breathing (Resuscitation for the Reef) draws the world's attention to one of its greatest natural wonders and the risks posed by the impacts of global warming and ocean acidification as she participates in Artists 4 Paris Climate Change 2015 from November 30 to December 11.

The event will see major contemporary artists from around the world exhibit work in public spaces around Paris and near the site of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Laurence is one of 30 artists from 23 countries selected for this project in Paris during the climate change talks. Other major artists showing work include Olafur Eliasson, Pedro Reyes and Song Dong.

Deep Breathing (Resuscitation for the Reef) focuses on the symbol of the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef and imagines the possibility for protecting and healing our marine world from the consequences of global warming and human activity, with a a space representing a resuscitation unit, a 'hospital for the reef' as Lawrence describes it.

The installation, which incorporates photos and natural material such as bleached corals and shells, will be presented at the entrance of Grande Galerie de l’Evolution at Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris. A video will be projected at the Tropical Aquarium of Palais de la Porte Dorée.

"I've also cast a lot of skeletal matter and corals and I've cast coal because you know we can't ignore that factor," she told the Sydney Morning Herald, alluding to the proposed expansion of coal export facilities along the Queensland coast. The work will also feature fish and turtle specimens borrowed from the Australian Museum in Sydney and Paris's Museum national d'Histoire naturelle.

You can read more about Laurence's work in the Sydney Morning Herald.