Still Life with Water
Covid commentary:
During the summer months in Maine I take a daily float in Casco Bay. Being suspended in water connects me to the earth, cools me down on hot days and shifts my perspective. This past summer of 2020 my daily ritual was a thing of familiarity during a pandemic, civil unrest, fires in the West and an important election a few months away, one that, depending on the outcome, could eliminate any amount of equity and peace that exists here.
Midway through the summer there was news that a shark killed someone not very far from where I swim. My daily ritual instantly became a metaphor for the low-level, relentless sense that invisible danger could strike at any moment. Rather than resting suspended in the cove that I swam in daily, I had to stay on alert. I was literally and metaphorically back floating with sharks.
Many times, I choose not to think too directly about the current state of things or I become immobilized. Denial in this way is a productive state. My studio is a place where I can visualize that sense of suspension in water without the sharks.
Photograpy: Luc Demers