This is Water
This Is Water explores self-awareness and its nemeses: blind certitude and unconsciousness.
It is inspired by a story shared by David Foster Wallace in a commencement speech: “There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the hell is water?’”
I love this parable and its reminder that essential things are all around us, hidden in plain sight. I use water to depict moments that precede transformation — those potent and vulnerable moments before something emerges or does not. Water reveals and water hides. It points to ways in which we are ego-deluded and dissociated from ourselves — drawn to a siren’s call.
I work above and below the surface, shifting mediums and bending light. My goal is to make images that are visually seductive but off-key — a world above the surface projecting one reality and another below, disassembled, and reconfigured — another universe. Most underwater kits minimize optical distortions caused by light passing through water. I want to amplify and wield them to create something ambiguous and illusory — the more refraction, diffusion, reflection, and scattered light, the better.
I use subterfuge to talk about delusion and awakening. The dissonance speaks to me of that uncomfortable, but necessary, place that can challenge complacency, wake you up and move you to act. The struggle for transformation defines each person’s journey between unconsciousness and self-awareness. Our task is to wake to ourselves and the waters in which we swim so that we may choose right action in the world. For me, that means not foundering in a sea of willful ignorance or being rendered mute by those who would drown my voice. And like our two young fish, it means swimming along, constantly reminding myself that “this… is water.”
