CLOVER CHRISTOPHERSON
10.20933/100001379
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Watery Bodies - Re-discovering Biophilia
Exhibition Proposal
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts (Hons)
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design University of Dundee
Word count of main body of text: 7653
List of Figures
Figure 1
Duncanson, L. (2017) Cyanotypes on Lindisfarne 9ft by 6ft. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanson/38669125605/in/album-721576903605
52511/ (Accessed: 10th December 2024) Image courtesy of artist.
Figure 2
BAM (n.d.) V&A Dundee. Available at: https://www.bam.co.uk/how-we-do-it/case-study/v-a-museum-of-design-dundee (Accessed: 22nd December 2024).
Figure 3
Quinn, L. (2017) Support. Available at:
https://publicdelivery.org/lorenzo-quinn-hands-venice/ (Accessed: 22nd of December 2024) Image courtesy of artist.
Figure 4
Boris, A. (2021) Einder II Available at: https://www.borisacket.nl/einder-ii/ (Accessed: 20th December 2024). Image courtesy of artist.
Figure 5
Christopherson, C. (2024) A Place Where Land Meets The Sky. (00:00:56).
Available at: https://youtu.be/_SH5UrzkQKg?si=SIuvM1f4yh195h2p (Accessed: 22nd December 2024).
Figure 6
Wronn, J. (2006) Installation view of the exhibition "Out of Time: A Contemporary View" Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81737?installation_image_index=1 (Accessed: 22nd December 2024).
Figure 7
JulianKnxx (2020) In Praise Of Still Boys. (00:01:18). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuhTlRvm5_w&t=146s (Accessed:10th December 2024).
Figure 8
Mueck, R. (2003) Mother and Child Available at: https://ropac.net/artists/63-ron-mueck/works/12903/ (Accessed: 10th December 2024).
Figures 9 & 10
Anatsui, E. (2019) Rising Sea. Images courtesy of Clover Christopherson (2024).
Figure 11
Röder, N. (2012-2017) A little deeper than you thought. [Image 31] Available at: https://ninaroeder.de/a-little-deeper-than-you-thought (Accessed: 22nd December 2024).
Figure 12
Röder, N. (2012-2017) A little deeper than you thought. [Image 28] Available at: https://ninaroeder.de/a-little-deeper-than-you-thought (Accessed: 22nd December 2024).
Figure 13
Rauschenberg, R. (1975) Emerald (Hoarfrost). Available at: https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/artwork/emerald-hoarfrost (Accessed: 22nd December 2024).
Figure 14
Rauschenberg, R. (1975) Glaze (Hoarfrost). Image courtesy of Clover Christopherson (2024).
Figure 15
Labelled floor plan of the proposed exhibition layout. Image courtesy of Clover Christopherson (2024).
Figure 16
Overall proposed exhibition layout. Image courtesy of Clover Christopherson (2024).
Figure 17, 18, 19, 20
White gallery layout. Image courtesy of Clover Christopherson (2024).
Figure 21, 22, 23, 24
Dark gallery layout. Image courtesy of Clover Christopherson (2024).
Figure 25
Soundpods. Image courtesy of Clover Christopherson (2024).
Acknowledgments
This dissertation began in January 2023, when Dr Louise Mackenzie became my advisor Her help and guidance was the foundation of my new-found interest into watery bodies and feminist philosophy Additionally, I would like to mention Professor Mary Modeen and Professor Tanya Kovats for their supportive research advice and to the staff at Dundee University library for all their assistance.
Special mention to Eoin Irving for helping me navigate my dyslexia.
Above all, I would like to thank my tutor Dr Helen Gorril, for her inspiring teaching, support and endless encouragement to further my ambition.
Positionality Statement
This dissertation has been grounded in over a decade of experience of competitive surfing, this immersion in water has stimulated much of my artistic practice.
Abstract
Watery Bodies - Re-discovering Biophilia is a unique contribution to conversations surrounding current ecological and political disputes that circulate in our society today This exhibition proposal will critically analyse 10 ten immersive contemporary artworks aiming to impact new and diverse audiences in the V&A Dundee temporary galleries and architecture of the wider building. This exhibition aims to educate the intended audience through experiential ecological learning, taking influence from scientific research and successful art exhibits from around the world.
Introduction
A body of water as we know it refers to an array of descriptions of water, such as seas, swamps, rainfall, lakes and rivers. Unbeknown to most, ‘Sixty to ninety percent of your bodily matter is composed of water ’ (Nemesis, A. 2012, p.86) which is often denoted and forgotten about due to the anthropocentrism of human nature. From the very moment we are brought into existence, we are born into liquid within our own mothers womb, gestating us throughout our lives until we greet death and sink into the ground, becoming nutrients for the next generation. People are like the grass that grows around us, collecting the water from the earth flowing up through pipes into our industrial nests where we sustain ourselves and fellow lifeforms. This exhibition dissertation has been designed to challenge the mind to reimagine our relationship to water: that we, just like the plants and animals around us, are a lifeform sustained by water as bodies of water ourselves.
This exhibition will be curated at the V&A Dundee and it will feature a range of contemporary artworks that analyse climate change, feminism, gender and race in relation to the watery human body. All artworks selected for the exhibition were considered for their watery qualities and how they would interact with an audience. The exhibition aims to use unconventional sensory techniques, probing the artwork’s impact on the audience. This proposal was designed by Clover Christopherson as a curatorial response to her own relationship with the sea, spending most of her early childhood and teenage years surfing in and around the cold waters of Scotland. She looks to explore our bodily autonomy as being inherently watery, seeking to create open conversations with the public by using art to develop new ways of thinking.
This proposal is underpinned by hydrofeminist writing by Astrida Neimanis and further influence from environmentalists, philosophers and science research which has contributed to creating a unique proposal, one which Scotland has never seen before.
Chapter one: Curatorial Thesis
1.1: The human body through the lens of Astrida Neimanis posthuman phenomenology
The book Bodies of Water (Neimanis, A. 2017) and other hydrofeminist writing by Astrida Neimanis (2012-22) underpin my research into the complexity of water and humans. It delves into the human body being ‘more than human’, abstracting our thinking to see ourselves as predominantly watery in our biological make-up.
For us humans, the flow and flush of waters sustain our own bodies, but also connect them to other bodies, to other worlds beyond our human selves. Indeed, bodies of water undo the idea that bodies are necessarily or only human. The bodies of which we siphon and into which we pour ourselves are certainly other human bodies (a kissable lover, a blood transfused stranger, a nursing infant), but they are just as likely a sea, a cistern, an underground reservoir of once-was-rain (Neimanis, A. 2017, p.2).
Water is a chemical compound that binds our human existence, linking bodies together through liquid, from our kitchen taps to tear ducts, and through our bloody veins. We are connected to everything around us without even being aware. It is often forgotten that as a species we originated from water Millions of years ago, our distant ancestors took on a fishy form. This slowly faded as it became evolutionary advantageous to live more and more off the land. Astrida Neimanis refers to Charles Darwin when relating to our fishy beginnings, ‘Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull and undoubtedly was a hermaphrodite!’ (Neimanis, A. 2017, p.109). We become more aware of the connection between water and our own bodies, when we learn that we began as creatures that existed in the watery bodies we are familiar with today Instinctively, we still return to the water today, and even in this modern age water feeds in and out of our lives from as simply as drinking a cup of tea.
Astrida Neimanis calls for a new perspective of watery thinking that changes the way we connect to the world socially, politically and environmentally, arguing that today we overlook the
significance of water. Within this new century of technology and high pressure environment we live in now, our species is repressing our previous relationship to our natural world. We now chase monetary gains regardless of the implications of the harm that is caused through our actions. By changing the way we view our own anatomy, it allows for conversations to be held to gain further connection to the ecology of the world around us and can help shape how we approach bodies politically and ecologically
1.2: The human body as political body of water
‘The problem was we did not know whom we meant when we said “we”’ (Neimanis, A. 2017, p.1). According to the lecture film Water in Common (Hydrofeminism and the paradox of 'We') (Common Propaganda, 2022) using the word ‘we’ is dangerous. ‘We’ refers to a grouping of people, when we say ‘we are bodies of water’ Astrida Neimanis encourages us to imagine that this grouping of ‘we’ not only refers to the body sitting next to us in a lecture, but includes bodies such as lakes, reservoirs, swamps and oceans. Using the word ‘we’ creates a false altogetherism of a collective such as feminists or people fighting for racial inequalities. In this case, when we say ‘we are bodies of water ’ we must take into account political bodies (Neimanis, A. Common Propaganda, 2022). All human bodies are different, in the same way a freshwater lake differs from the salty sea. The bodies that we host today carry water that has lived through thousands of human lifespans.
‘These bodies are all caught up in one another ’s currents - as they are with the whale's body, the body of a rain cloud, and the body of the increasingly toxic sea’ (Neimanis, A. 2017, p.38).
Considering ourselves composed of water, we must entertain the idea that it flows in and out of our bloodlines, recycling rain, snow and the oceans. Doing so, we see that water is passed down generationally, carrying this history through the decomposed bodies that were once integrated in society The history of our watery bodies is important to analyse politically, as the inequality faced across the human race is still distilled within us today. Where a body has been displaced geographically determines what water flows through it, migrating bodies are imprinted by several waters. ‘I identify as a mammal. I identify as a Black woman ascending with and shaped
by a whole group of people who were transubstantiated into property and kidnapped across an ocean’ (Gumbs, A. 2020, p.6). Traces of blood stained water shift throughout our bodies, carrying with it the ghosts from civil war, genocide and slavery. Bodies are still drowning in our waters daily, the cycle of human abuse causing people to migrate across treacherous seas in hope of better waters. We must take into account the politics of the water that gestates our timelines in order to truly understand the depths of water in our human history
Biological sex plays a part in how we see political bodies, women differ from the male sex in their reproductive anatomy. From lactation to umbilical cords, the female body transfers liquid and flows through other bodies in the way that a male cannot, forcing a rethinking of ‘we’.
Margret Shildrick writes
What I have in mind is both the especial immanence of the female body, as it is frequently represented in ontological theory, such that it enmeshes women themselves; and its putative leakiness, the outflow of the body which breaches the boundaries of the proper (Shildrick, M. 1997, p.16).
The use of the word ‘immanence’ here has religious connotations, invoking an idea that we live in a world which God created, and has constrained the female body from the beginning. It also has connotations of the female body having permanence to part of the earth. The viewpoint that Shildrick takes (Shildrick, M. 1997) is that the female body has been trapped within religious ideologies and therefore not free to be its true leaky self. She argues that the female body should be able to transcend through everything around it. This quote depicts how female bodies are viewed within our society today, something which is to be controlled under strict regimentation. From the earliest versions of the bible, women were taught that their biological differences to men were placed upon them as punishment. From menstrual bleeding to childbirth, women were seen to be grotesque. The female body was (and still is) ostracized from being any way beautiful or sexual, deeming women impure by societal standards for existing as a temptation for the male gaze (Holland, J. 2018).
Furthermore it should be stated that, ‘The fluid body is not specific to woman, but watery embodiment is still a feminist question; thinking as a watery body has the potential to bathe new feminist concepts and practices into existence’ (Neimanis, A. 2012, p.89). By acknowledging the existence of feminine bodies and the inequalities between biological sex, we can further understand this idea of ‘we’. Watery bodies should be striving for equality between the sexes, where women are allowed to leak and flow through lifeforms, unconstrained by social constructs.
Water in Common (Hydrofeminism and the paradox of 'We') (Common Propaganda, 2022) suggests that this use of ‘we’ should act as a placeholder for hope, that ‘we’ shall come together to achieve better things. It should consider the political complications of the human body and rather than being a collective of an idea that is perhaps a minority, it should refer to goals for equality For example ‘we are bodies of water, fighting for equal bodies across all waters’.
1.3:
Human ecological impact on contemporary watery bodies
Global warming, plastic pollution and climate change are having a fast and widespread effect on our waters, and in turn the human body. From microplastics to environmental toxins plaguing the environment, we are beginning to see a negative impact on ourselves, ironically as a product of our own capitalist nature. Due to the bombardment of modern media and the vicious circle of blame that comes with providing a solution to the issue, much of the modern human population have switched off, finding it easier to ignore the problem than address it. Ignorance is blissful to the industrialists who only profit from nature's destruction, their only hindrance the odd woke protester. Astrida Neimanis discusses the impact of pollution on our bodies ‘If breast milk were sold at the grocery store, in some cases it would exceed allowable levels in foods on the shelf next to it’ (Neimanis, A. 2017, p.33). The influx of pollution around the world is beginning to have a direct impact on our own human bodies, while many people still view it as external to our own human body Breast milk, the purest, earliest form of nourishment for our most vulnerable kind, is now more polluted than the harmful processed foods on our shelves, something which many adults would completely refuse to consume.
Haraway states in her book Staying with Trouble, ‘we think we know enough to reach the conclusion that life on earth that includes human people in any tolerable way really is over, that the apocalypse really is nigh’ (Haraway, D.J. 2016, p.4). Haraway is stating that our perspective on our climate crisis is too negative, that we are already too close to the end of humanity
Therefore lie in a state of submission to the climate crisis. Yet Haraway provides a solution, she coined the term ‘natureculture’ in 2003 (Latimer, J. Miele, M. 2013, p.11), a term which challenges our current ideas about the relationship humans have to culture and nature. She argues that it does not make sense to view nature and human culture as singular entities as they are so intertwined in shaping one another. ‘Natureculture’ (Latimer, J. Miele, M. 2013, p.11) is the cycle of nature’s permanent effect on human culture, and vice versa. For example, climate change is caused by the persistence of human consumption (culture) but affects the world's ecosystem (nature), in turn affecting our consumption of the land and food. By choosing to evolve and live in harmony with the world that we know today, we stand a better chance of solving the current environmental catastrophe.
Astrida Neimanis follows similar ideas to Haraway however through the lens of hydrofeminism where we imagine ourselves as part of the aquatic ecosystem, explaining that;
Imagining ourselves as bodies of water, I argue, provides a vector for at least partially mapping these responsibilities. When we pee antihistamines into waterways, the ‘distributed agency’ of those drugs on hydroecologies, on riparian flora and fauna, and on weather systems, drips from our bodies, too. (Neimanis, A. 2017, p.17).
Understanding that everything we consume both commercially and organically has a widespread effect on the earth's ecology, from antihistamines to antibiotics is vital. Human beings need to acknowledge the butterfly effect of our consumption, even the medicine we consume has an effect on our bodies. Perhaps from an ecological standpoint, these drugs passing through our systems and into waterways and nature systems does more damage over time than the shorter term issues they are trying to heal. Even our current language is far removed from nature. For example, the use of the phrase ‘wild swimming’ as Olivia Laing discusses in Waterlog (Deacon, R. 2014, p.9), solicits an adventure outside our accustomed experience of highly chlorinated
indoor pools. In fact, the level of human impact on our wild watery bodies forces a rethink of ‘wild’ and perhaps outdoor swimming should be referred to as just swimming. By noticing the way human technological evolution has affected our relation to nature, and taking responsibility to change, only then do we have a chance of reconnecting to our biophilia.
Chapter two: Curatorial choices
The exhibition will be held at the V&A in Dundee where it will hold the following contemporary artworks from ten artists. The artworks will run throughout the interior and exterior of the building making use of its unusual architecture, gallery spaces and ideal water qualities. In order to make the exhibition successful in displaying such varied artworks, two opposing galleries had to be designed for different lighting requirements. Artworks were chosen and split in relevance to relish it. Each print a new pressed algae. Another skin removed and shared’ (Duncanson, L. 2021, p.1). The collaboration between the artist's material choice and subject matter is inherently watery: the cyanotype process itself is built on exposure through UV light and the print only becomes a cyanotype once washed through a body of water.
Figure 3 superimposed on Figure 2.
A commission of Support (Quinn, L. 2017) will be installed on the water facing side of the V&A Dundee. This commission has been selected, due to its ability to be installed into the Tay. As it can be seen from a distance, it will generate more attention to the exhibition much like the placing of Maman by Louise Bourgeois at the Guggenheim, Bilbao (Bourgeois, L. 1999) becoming an iconic, recognisable landmark.
Support (Quinn, L. 2017) was commissioned for the Climate Change Conference in Madrid 6 years ago, originally selected as a symbol of the rising sea levels in Venice and the expected floods that are meant to put the city underwater eventually (Halcyon. 2019). Like Venice, Dundee and much of Scotland situated on the coast and also at mercy of the changing climate. The commissioned sculpture will not only bring press to the exhibition, but also act as a warning for Dundee and Scotland of our rising sea levels and how in turn we will sink. A 2021 article in The Herald suggests that within 30 years parts of St Andrews, Broughty Ferry and even Dundee—specifically the V&A, the train station, airport and Tay bridge—could be impacted by rising sea levels (Aitchison, J. 2021). The sculpture mimics how the current separation of human and ocean bodies will muddy with rising sea levels.
The museum will provide boat tours every half hour, and long-standing Scottish adventure company Coast to Coast Surf School has agreed to provide paddleboard tours along the Tay allowing the public to get close to the sculpture.
2.2:
Artworks in the Dark Gallery:
Boris Acket is a visual artist, composer and director who works with sound and light to create multisensory installations. Einder II (Acket, B. 2021) is a 30 metres long installation of lambent moving textiles to electronic sounds composed by Boris Acket and Elias Mazian (Acket, B. 2021), however for this exhibition the V&A Dundee will commission a smaller version of 20 metres long in order to accompany the temporary gallery dark room dimensions.
A curatorial aim of this exhibition is to reconnect audiences with their forgotten biophilia. Einder II (Acket, B. 2021) uses sound, textiles and lighting to create nostalgia for the experience of nature. This nostalgia is why Einder II (Acket, B. 2021) is situated as the first artwork in the V&A interior That immersion is vital to a posthuman reimagining of water, where we perceive ourselves as if we aren't central to our world. Exhibition goers will walk through the dark gallery alongside the artwork which moves like a large beating heart, breathing in and out creating anthropomorphic qualities to ‘second nature’ (Tsing, A.L. 2015, p.8) materials. The term ‘second nature’ refers to the use of non natural materials, (as opposed to natural materials like wood, stone ect) that now are part of our nature due to the evolution of humans and technology The juxtaposition between the feeling of a nostalgia for nature from the use of unnatural materials that is interesting to analyse as a viewer of the artwork
Figure 4
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A place where land meets the sky (Christopherson, C. 2024) by Clover Christopherson will be the first of two films featured in the dark gallery sound pods. The black and white film features Scottish landscapes accompanied by poetry from various different writings discussing similar themes featured in Bodies of Water (Neimanis, A. 2017). The film will be projected onto silk which creates a transparent water-like permeation to the screening. The artist's practise is stimulated by her childhood growing up surfing in the cold coastal waters of Scotland. Filmed in St Andrews, across the Tay river from Dundee it is the most local of the artworks included in this exhibition. Roughly 4 minutes long, the moving image transcends the audience deeper into the dark gallery immersion, furthering the discussed ideas of watery thinking.
Figure
Figure 6
The third artwork to be selected and exhibited in the dark gallery is Bill Viola's digital masterpiece Stations,(Viola, B. 2024). The artwork is made up of five channels of colour video projections, on five suspended three metre cloth screens, overlooking five black granite slabs with further sound installation (Clayton, M. 2019, p.23). Bill Viola is known for a near drowning experience during his childhood which stimulates his artistic practice where water is consistently present. In the installation, five human figures of different sex float upside down moving in and out of the oblong screens. They dangle freely in the black watery world and sound can be heard coming from the artworks of muffled underwater babble. Stations (Viola, B. 2024) has been chosen for this exhibition for its hydrofeminism-like qualities. This piece aims to make the viewer rethink their own reliance on water and how that transpires into their lives, from birth to death. The figures lie in womb like caskets, like foetuses in their mothers stomach, submerged completely in water yet calm and submissive. Waiting. The use of darker colours allows the onlooker to view the artwork as being otherworldly as the dark orbs give connotations of alien lifeforms. This abstracted view of the human figure floating, unable to do anything but exist, completely submissive to the water that surrounds it and completely reliant on the cycle of liquid.
In Praise of Still Boys (Knxx, J. 2020) by artist and filmmaker Julian Knoxx, is the second film displayed in the soundpods. The poetry film begins with the sound of the artist's mother before featuring a group of boys from Sierra Leone. The film stems from the artist's move to London as a young adult, featuring the body of water that separates London and Africa, where he experienced civil war (DeLaMater, M. 2021). The juxtaposition of the artist's relationship with the countries he has lived and the bodies of water that surround them create a complicated internal relationship, which stems through Knoxx’s poetry. Through his poetry we learn that he views physical bodies of water as holding memories that carry death, which in turn is carried through human bodies: ‘Still boys made of water [...] I wondered how it could hold all those past black bodies’ (Bouteb, M. 2020). Perhaps Knoxx’s relationship with death from a very early age from Sierra Loane’s civil war causes him to perceive water as a trauma carrier, as Astrida Neimanis said, ‘To drink a glass of water is to ingest the ghosts of bodies that haunt that water ’ (Neimanis, A. 2012, p.87). This film represents water as a time machine, churning round and round, carrying all that has once engaged in an ecological relationship.
Figure 7
2.3: Artworks in the Light Gallery:
Just like how Julian Knoxx’s filmwork (Knxx, J. 2020) discusses death and water, this exhibition must also discuss life and rebirth in relation to water. Mother and Child (Mueck, R. 2003) is a sculpture made by artist Ron Mueck isolating the moment a child leaves its mothers safeguarding and nutrients, beginning a life of self sustainment. These themes are touched on in Hydrofeminism: or, on becoming a body of water, ‘During that time in her womb, then, haven of skin, of membranes, of water a complete world, [...] air, warmth, food, blood, life, potentially even the risk of death, come to him via a hollow thread’ (Nemanis, A. 2012, p.118). The sacred connection between a mother and child is inherently carried through water, from blood, cells, and nutrients: the two bodies are connected with fluids through a single umbilical cord sustaining life forms. As Shildrick argues in Leaky Bodies and Boundaries (Shildrick, M. 1997), we should discuss biological sex and the impact of water within the female anatomy. Water transpires through wombs, menstrual blood and breastmilk. In the same way a mother flows through the earth, she also flows through her baby and sustains the child through her own body of water. The mother passes her inherited water into her kin, and then when that baby is grown, they too will recycle this water and so forth.
Figure 8
El Anatsui’s Rising Sea (Anatsui, E. 2019), made in 2019, is a sculpture that measures almost 15 metres long by 7 metres high, made entirely of aluminium bottle caps collected by the artist and his studio team. Rising Sea (Anatsui, E. 2019) provokes the idea of our sea being infested with plastic, a concern ignited by the media and activists today as our consumption increases. The use of waste materials as Anatsui’s palette is ironic, and could be interpreted as a silent political statement. Human consumption mimics the motions of the sea, plastic is used and discarded, it ebbs and flows from our bodies. The inclusion of Rising Sea (Anatsui, E. 2019), comes with an aim to show human effect on our external waters that in turn are affecting our internal bodily waters. El Anatsui responds intuitively to his environmental surroundings when making work, and allows the work to be free flowing in the way it is exhibited, often giving permission to the curator to display the work in what feels correct to the space for them (Binder, L.M. 2008, p.24).
11
12
Two photographs shown in Figure 11 and Figure 12 (Röder, N. 2012-2017) have been chosen to be shown as a diptych and the images will be printed at 1 metre long by 1 metre wide. By being larger they will in turn become a focus point of the room drawing in the audience and from an aesthetic point of view, fall in line with the scale of the other works.
Figure 11 depicts a female body sprawled across rocks while water from a river washes through her, Röder ’s blend of effervescent colour allows us to view the female body as being part of the rock as though the body itself was being eroded and washed over time. The water that flows over her, is the same water that flows inside of her and is the same water that has flown since the beginning of the very rocks she lies on.
Figure 12 illustrates a human figure whose face and head is partially covered by a mop-like head of seaweed. The image aims to bring about an illusion whereas the seaweed is the human hair, sprouting live algae from the fibres of a skull, growing from within. ‘Seaweed produces oxygen, around 70% of the total oxygen on Earth’ (Kramp, H. 2019). The use of seaweed here is interesting with respect to human relationship with oxygen, the portrait speaks to our ecology and the way we are intertwined within this wider cycle of life.
Figure
Figure
Figure 13
2 pieces from Robert Rauschenberg’s 1974-76 collection Hoarfrosts will be included in the white gallery presented side by side as a diptych. Rauschenberg described Hoar Frosts series as ‘shimmering information’ to american author Calvin Tomkins (Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, n.d.). Rauschenberg depicts a diver in Emerald (Rauschenberg, R. 1975) and a set of hands in Glaze (Rauschenberg, R. 1975) in the pellucid silky material skin. The printed humans conjoin with the material submerged in silk, chiffon and satin as they hang floating in the gallery, just as we humans flow through water in our day to day The name Hoarfrost refers to water droplets that form into ice crystals when they come into contact with something very cold. This could be interpreted as histories frozen in time, trapped under water surface like watery time capsules - a testament to all that water holds within it.
2.4: Exhibition model and Layout
In order to actualise the exhibition, a to-scale model was created of the V&A temporary galleries. 1 metre at the V&A Dundee is equivalent to 1.4cm in this fifty three centimetre long by forty centimetre wide model. The exhibition model was sustainably made, with second hand found materials largely sourced for free primarily made from mixed media board and perspex with additions of foam, plastic and paper.
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Figure 21
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Figure 24
Chapter three: Curatorial Aims and Influences
3.1: Sensory spaces
‘Different bodies result in different ways of thinking about the world’ (Dewey, R. 2018, p.72).
Research on the human brain has resulted in new information about how we respond to artwork. This exhibition aims to focus on how sensory techniques such as sound, sculpture, moving image and installation can impact a gallery space and furthermore the audience.
Conceptual metaphors show that our conceptual system is linked and shaped by perceptual and motor systems and the only way people can form and frame concepts is through their bodies. This means that sensorimotor experience influences our thinking or reasoning about the world (Dewey, R. 2018, p.72).
The preceding quote explains that scientists have discovered that we learn best through physically experiencing, seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. Our senses determine our responses, not just on a day-to-day basis but also throughout evolution. Therefore, curating this exhibition while thinking about how a viewer experiences both galleries is vital. If there is to be any impact from the concepts discussed, it must be communicated through sensory, experiential learning. Physical experience is what makes art such an encapsulating communication tool, as it has the ability to rewire the human brain and subconsciously change the way we think.
Within this exhibition proposal, every artwork was carefully considered for how it would encourage sensory interaction and how it could approach subjects that needed to be addressed in a new light. An exhibition that was successful in using sensory techniques to revisit an often talked about topic was Out to Sea? The Plastic Garbage Project (2012) which has now travelled to 30 countries across the world. In each exhibition, curators fill a gallery full of marine pollution collected from ocean garbage patches. By directly displaying mass garbage before the audience,
the viewer was able to contextualise the scale of human consumption, therefore revisiting an issue in a new way that provided further effort to change (Mörsch, C. Sachs, A, Sieber, T. 2016).
Northern Irish artist and curator Siobhan Hapaska, whose practice is sensory led, was incredibly influential to the choice of artworks for this exhibition. She encourages the viewers to think about how she interacts with her work as she ‘believes that the most meaningful exchange occurs when people ‘feel’ a work, i.e. when they have a more intuitive response to it’ (Stocchi, F. 2018, p.81). Hapaska curates her work in a way where viewers choose to interact with the artwork, hoping that by the audience becoming more involved, the ideas behind her work will have a greater impact on them. Like all the artists featured in this exhibition, Hapaska’s concepts dictate her medium choice as discussed in Sensory Spaces (Stocchi, F. 2018). Allowing herself to convert ideas about politics, religion and rebellion into physical objects with the ability to connect to viewers of any age, allows her art to become more impactful.
3.2: Choice of venue
When researching for exhibition spaces, the V&A Dundee was always considered for its aqueous qualities, as it was crucial to curation that the exhibition building itself felt watery. The museum's architect Kengo Kuma ‘described the building as that of a sea cliff; something that strove to mediate between land and water, city and landscape’ (Kemsley, R. 2018). The V&A Dundee overlooks the Tay river which leads out to the North Sea, its small tantalising window pockets and ship-like structure utilise the view. Even on the city facing side, shallow pools wrap around the building and create walkways that naturally flow. These features meant that the V&A Dundee stood out significantly against other galleries such as the Tate St Ives, England and the Guggenheim museum, Bilbao which were also built next to bodies of water but missed the mark in their internal architecture design.
‘The space of a museum encloses like a frame and places something on display It divides an interior from an exterior, closes off this interior inside of itself and envelops it with value.’
(Mörsch, Sachs, Sieber, 2016, p.16)
Part of the value of the V&A Dundee is its enclosing temporary gallery spaces, the largest of any gallery spaces in Scotland (BBC News, 2018). A conventional white cube space was sought after for this proposal as the gallery selected would have to accommodate new paintwork and hefty structures in order to achieve the intended experiential learning. Finally, the building structure meant that 2 artworks could be displayed outside of the museum, something that felt important to attract further publicity and generate interest.
Breaking a traditional gallery film screening, these soundproof pods, shown in Figure 25 pointed to with pink arrows, were commissioned for this proposal to display the selected films. Inspiration was taken from the sound and video installation Sphæræ (Sphaerae, 2014) by Dutch artist Cocky Eek, which was made in 2013. Eek displayed work from over fifty artists in several conjoining domes, immersing the audience into a new audiovisual experience. ‘Sound is immaterial and fugitive. It’s time based, and it is nothing without being experienced’ (Weibel, P. 2019, p.548). The domes would be completely soundproof so as not to disturb the wider gallery hosting sound installations such as Einder II (Boris, A. 2021). The experience of hearing can
Figure 25
trigger emotional feeling, increasing how deeply art can resonate and be a voice for change, therefore it's important that each artwork has the ability to be heard separately.
3.3: Intended Audience
The V&A is still considered new to Scotland, attracting a large annual footfall: within its first year it welcomed over 830,000 visitors which, far more than was initially predicted (V&A Dundee, 2019). In order to align with the above footfall targets, the intended audience had to be considered, ‘In practise, the task for the museum is to become more permeable to the outside world’ (Mörsch, Sachs, Sieber, 2016, p.16). While this proposal would like to encourage revisits to the gallery from regulars, it also aims to bring in a new audience by making this exhibition more accessible and exciting to unusual demographics. (See Appendix C, pp.50, for further information on Exhibition Program and Public Inclusivity).
The primary intended audience would be Scotland’s general public living on the East Coast with an interest in the environment. Based in Dundee and connected to water, this exhibition could resonate with locals and attract people less inclined to take interest in contemporary art, such as the Aberdeen fishing industry and Scottish highlanders, as their lives are so interwoven with the ways of the sea. A secondary audience would be children and school groups. As an exhibition that broaches topics such as climate change and ecology, it’s vital that young people receive a widespread education so they can become environmentally educated for our future. This proposal aims to engage with local schools and nurseries to attract young people to visit.
Chapter four: Other curatorial influences
4.1 - Waterlog by Roger deacon
The book Waterlog (Deakin, R. 2014) entails Roger Deakin’s relationship to water and documents his self set challenge to swim the British Isles during 1996. Through this, he explored every conventional body of water known. Throughout Deakin’s entire life, water was a friend, supporting him through relationship breakdowns, loss and loneliness. I felt akin to Deakin, considering the sea a great friend of mine, having spent many hours surfing along the Scottish East Coast. I believe for both of us water goes beyond a chemical compound, materialising itself as a comfort in the same way a grandmother's cuddle would console you. ‘I grew convinced that following water, flowing with it, would be a great way of getting under the skin of things, of learning something new. I might learn about myself, too’ (Deakin, R. 2014, p.3). Waterlog connects directly to the overarching purpose of this exhibition: Deakin advocates that by connecting with water, there is something to be gained in learning about ourselves. Water itself is social, perhaps not in a conventional sense, but water communicates emotively, through tide cycles, storms, pollution and waves. In a way Deakin is controlled by water, it gives him purpose and a sense of joy which is something I experience in the effect of cold water surfing on my mind, body and soul when I enter the North Sea.
4.2 - Tanya Kovats
Tanya Kovats is an interdisciplinary artist that has used water in her practice for decades. My first introduction to Tanya Kovats was through Drawing Water: Drawing as a Mechanism for Exploration (Kovats, T. 2014). The book which was influential to this proposal, in its display of various artists that use water as a stimulus for their practice alongside stories and poetry discussing water politics, marine biology and tales of folklore. Kovats (Kovats, T 2014) features a vast collection of classical to contemporary watery art which refine my artistic taste and sharpen my curatorial choices.
Reading Kovat’s publications soon transitioned to direct interactions, including attending an 1:1 open tutorial and lectures at Dundee University. Kovats was extremely influential in making me reimagine how I think about water, encouraging me to work with liquid, and invite water into my work (See Appendix D, pp.51). By working intuitively with water, it put me in a good stead to curate an exhibition proposal where water flows throughout. Allowing me to reflect on my own experiences and use that to research others, which has been a massive benefit to this proposal and my studio practice as a whole.
4.3 - Films
The following films helped inform this dissertation through a strong visual depiction of conventional bodies of water in relation to human biophilia.
Mike Guest is a Scottish filmmaker who documents Surfing and water in and around Scotland. A collection of his best work is presented in the film The Moments in Between (Guest, M. 2021), which is a unique contribution to documentation of Scottish Surfing and the experience of being in water. It visually depicts crashing barrelling waves, air bubbles travelling through water surface and how light punctures through a water ’s skin-like surface through Guests unique eye. It encapsulates the ocean's mood as though it was anthropomorphic.
How The Earth Must See Itself (L, Cash. S,Kenyon. 2019), is a short film by Lucy Cash and Simone Kenyon with poetry voiceovers of extracts from Nan Shepards novel The Living Mountain (Shepherd, Nan. 1977). Filmed in the Cairngorms, the film features a beautiful array of warm greens, yellows and browns to depict five subjects reimagining the world from the Earth's perspective.
Ashes and Snow (2005) is a film directed by Gregory Colbert, is a film that explores the harmonious wild relationship between humans and animals from across the world. A glow of golden sepia, the film illustrates wild leopards, elephants and more exotic creatures interacting with monks, nomads and children in a way where neither seeks to kill nor become more dominant over the other.
Conclusion
Underpinned with a posthuman approach and using hydrofeminist philosophies from writing by Astrida Neimanis, this proposal analyses how contemporary art can be used to make change to current and future generations through analysing our relationship to water This exhibition proposes a new perspective through ecological experiential learning on the way that we view our own bodies in relation to water and how that is affecting us politically, environmentally and socially.
The V&A Dundee played a critical role in the success of this proposal, its location and architecturally advantageous watery qualities meant that it could hold large scale works both internally and externally The reshaping of the iconic Scottish building will attract more footfall, as this exhibition aims to attract a new throng of water enthusiasts, a young audience and the most philistine of the Dundee public. Watery Bodies - Rediscovering Biophilia has explored new research into how sensory artworks can contribute to learning through our brain waves and therefore how art can make a greater impact. The exhibition goers will have the ability to walk, boat or paddle board through external architecture, experiencing how art can be displayed in water In the internal galleries, the audience will discover an environmental nostalgia from the installation, film, photography and sculpture work.
‘Why should the visitors be interested in issues with which they are often confronted on a daily basis in the museum as well?’ (Mörsch, C. Sachs, A, Sieber, T. 2016, p.31)
In a rapidly changing world, this exhibition dissertation is a partial answer to how contemporary art and galleries can discuss complex ideas, in a way that they can be easily interpreted for change. Providing an alternative more ecological way of looking at the world, this proposal brings new contemporary answers to approaching issues that make use of the resources we have today.
If the reading of this proposal has brought forward new questions, ideas and reflection on the connection between nature, water and your own body then it has concluded its purpose.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Personal Statement
My practice revolves around interlaying textiles, film, drawing and printmaking to replicate my experiences in the ocean, all stemmed through my passion for surfing in Scotland and beyond. I have always been fascinated by water, looking at the way liquid moves, its spiralling patterns and smooth surface. I find peace in the sea's ever-changing nature, its unpredictability creates thrill, causing me to chase after swells, tides and weather cycles.
Water flows through us all, gestating and connecting us through life cycles. I aim to document the relationship between natural water sources and light and then in turn how that permeates through the human body. Taking hydro feminist approaches to the way I research my practice and present my work, with an aim to impact in the way that the viewer imagines themselves.
The use of drawing and printmaking has always been a base layer to my work, aiming to help exaggerate water patterns that I find so encapsulating, which is further explored through textiles and various mediums of digital media. I enjoy experimenting with what I have access to, mixing mediums together to create my own artistic stamp. I always aim to be sustainable where I can and use natural working methods that benefit the environment and my community
Appendix
B: Unsuccessful Layout
Overall view of an alternative layout that would not be effective. The reason being is that artworks such as Al Anatsui’s Rising Sea (Anatsui, E. 2019), Nina Röder ’s photograph diptych (Röder, N. 2012-2017) and other artworks placed originally in the white gallery do not work within a dark gallery context. They require additional lighting in order to be shown to their total effect, which takes away from installation artworks like Einder II (Acket, B. 2021) which requires darker lighting. In the white gallery, the same issues occur for artworks such as Bill Viola's installation piece Stations (Viola, B. 1994) where in a light space the panels would pick up light reflections and be less impactful within the space.
While the sound pods would not be impacted by the gallery space they were placed in, curatorially it feels important for the films to be displayed in the same gallery holding context to the surrounding works as they act as introduction artworks to the overall exhibition.
Above shown are El Anatsui’s sculpture Rising Sea (Anatsui, E. 2019) and the Bill Viola installation Stations (Viola, B. 1994) in the wrong lighting context so therefore they are less impactful.
Appendix C: Exhibition Program and Public Inclusivity
Watery Bodies - re-discovering biophilia will feature a series of interactive events for its opening week in order to attract members of the Dundee public to engage with the exhibition space and therefore making a great contribution to overall public impact. The exhibition will run for 3 months through the summer of 2025, allowing for more favourable weather for exhibition goers to see the external artworks. An additional 6 weeks prior to the opening date will be reserved for the installment of all works, the main galleries to be redesigned and the dome soundpods to be built.
The official opening night will be Friday June 6th 2025. Astrida Neimanis (2012 - 2022) will hold an open conversation with curatorial staff on the exhibition opening night, discussing her research into posthuman feminist phenomenology in the V&A Dundee auditorium. Neimanis will also provide a reading list of 5 recommended watery books accompanied by a book from each of the 10 exhibition artists selected which will be displayed outside the gallery with seating provided. Taking inspiration from the Cooper Gallery 2024 exhibition The Scale of Things (2024), where the Cooper Gallery curators included a seating area where they displayed relevant books that had influenced exhibiting film makers Saodat Ismailova, Grace Ndiritu and Margaret Tait.
‘The curator is a crucial handmaiden not necessarily to the creation of an artwork (although that is becoming more often the case) but certainly to its becoming public beyond a narrow circle’ (Smith, 2012).
Watery Bodies - Re-Discovering Biophilia will be inclusive of disabilities and aim to be accessible for everyone. In order to do this, additional reading and listening resources will be provided and the galleries will be accessible for any physical disabilities. Galleries should display art in a way it can be easily interpreted or understood, and provide different learning materials that can suit a range of learning needs. Additional resources are important to exhibitions that run for longer periods of time to encourage multiple visits, to make sales and for museums to stay open in light of the uncertainty of creative spaces within Scotland.
D: Sketchbook notes from Tanya Kovats online tutorial
Appendix