swim

SWIM
BOXCARSIX artist collective

For each of us, swimming is personal. We all have a unique experience with water and that experience carries meaning and memories. The different pieces in this exhibition reflect that variety in understanding and interpretation. To swim is to enter different element from that we usually inhabit, yet paradoxically it is also a return to our primordial selves. We are descendants of creatures that crawled out of the sea, after all. Our bodies are designed to float in water, and we can move in fluid ways impossible on land. For some the delight of being buoyed up in water represents freedom, an escape from both society and the demands of the ego; a delight in physicality and a one-ness with our true nature. For others, the fear of being pulled down into the murky depths, or swept away by a wave, or simply being lost in the vastness of a lake or the sea is too great. Whether from personal experience of being pushed off a dock or thrown in the deep end of a pool; or from the cultural memory of an ancient tide that swept away all but a few; or from more recent stories of sailors and fishermen being lost at sea, the threat of being overwhelmed by the water one is in is always present – even for an accomplished swimmer. Each piece shown here started with a blank length of paper. Using drawing, writing, painting, collage and cutting, we have each imbued our pieces with our individual joys, delights, griefs and frustrations, as we take those same perceptions and discernments with us to the water.