My practice is concerned with the effects of nature and the sea upon self. I use the sea as this is the landscape where I grew up and was raised, allowing me to further explore personal sensory and emotional connections. I show the physical reality and mortality of the body and its power, creating a parallel between the sea and the body.I address the theatrical and repetitive qualities that the movement of such a landscape provides. The subliminal surrounding provides knowledge of a personal continued existence beyond life and death. Through image, performance, prints and paint, I create the textual and sensational movements that embody the empowering qualities of the sea. Where the body is overwhelmed by the surroundings and grief, the spectacle of emotion allows for transcendence and liberation, linking to the spiritual upheavals of the body’s end on the earth.

 

My recent practice explores the experience of plunging or submerging the body into water, the relatedness of this experience when overcoming grief and finding peace in yourself and your surroundings. The therapeutic nature of wild swimming, and its increasing popularity, influence the use of water within my work when portraying its control over the body and mind. I intend(ed) for the audience to view the work and understand or relate to this experience, with feelings of awe and grief but also peace,where the works overwhelm and intrigue.

 

The creating process was repetitive and therapeutic, which coincides with the peaceful intention within the work. The sewing of the fabric upon fabric was time-consuming, though not wholly delicate; it manifests a roughness and mournfulness which coincides with the temperature of the wild water and the scale. The materials inform the concept as the fabric, hanging loosely, creates an unconfined image of irregularity and instability, but of movement and ethereality, reflecting water and grief. I created the work because I found the past couple of years to be turbulent and unpredictable, and I wanted to bring attention to something which is simple but physically and mentally effective in preventing this turbulence.The scale of the work further allows the space to be immersive and allows the viewer to become apart of the work. A viewer, after witnessing the work, will understand, relate, or have an insight to:religious experiences, contemporary reliefs of trauma and my personal encounter in overcoming grief.