Fluking Around and Finding Out

The Story Behind Fluking Around and Finding Out

Deep beneath the ocean's surface, pressure increases with every descent.

And still, life thrives there.

Whales descend into depths where darkness surrounds them and immense pressure bears down upon them. They adapt to an environment that would overwhelm us, then eventually return to the surface to breathe, gather, and socialize.

There is something deeply human in that journey.

We also experience periods when life seems to pull us beneath the surface. Pressure builds around us. We adapt. We endure. We discover strengths we may not have known we possessed.

Eventually, we rise again.

Fluking Around and Finding Out captures that fleeting moment at the surface. A whale's fluke rises from the water before disappearing again into the depths below.

But the sculpture carries another message.

The whale may be powerful enough to survive the pressure of the deep, yet there is one pressure it cannot simply adapt to forever.

Us.

Human activity continues to threaten the oceans and the creatures that depend upon them. Pollution, discarded plastics, fishing debris, habitat disruption, and other pressures created above the surface eventually find their way below it.

The whale can adapt to the depths.

It should not have to adapt to our carelessness.

There is an uncomfortable contradiction within the sculpture itself. The whale is created from reclaimed sheet steel and an automotive pushrod, materials from our industrial world transformed into a reminder of the natural world we have the responsibility to protect.

Its natural Ebano wood base connects those worlds once again.

Perhaps that is ultimately what Fluking Around and Finding Out asks of us.

We admire resilience because we recognize it within ourselves.

But admiration is not enough.

If we want these magnificent animals to continue surfacing for generations to come, our own actions cannot become the pressure they are unable to survive.

“Fluking Around and Finding Out”

Even from the depths, under crushing pressure, we are resilient.

We adapt, we thrive, we are triumphant.

From time to time, we surface to breathe, to gather, and socialize.

If you are not careful you will be our ever threatening demise.

~ Enrique Del Angel

Artwork Details

Artist: Enrique Del Angel
Title: Fluking Around and Finding Out
Year: 2026
Medium: Reclaimed steel and natural wood sculpture
Materials: Hand-formed reclaimed sheet metal, automotive pushrod, and natural Ebano wood
Finish: High-gloss automotive clearcoat
One-of-a-Kind Original Sculpture