Ground Swell

During a trip to Scotland in November of 2022, I documented the water patterns and wave forms of the North Atlantic which led to several new pieces based on North sea waters. The Ground Swell project continued that view, but is responding more to the industrial environment and maritime culture of the New England coast. The extensive history of a subsistence economy of commercial fishing and boat building in the cold waters of the Atlantic informed the project, as a lens through which to view the changing global climate and specifically the impact it has on acidification, heating and habitat loss in the sea. The coastal waters were famously rich fishing grounds and have been reduced to just a shadow of their former productivity through centuries of intense fishing and habitat degradation. These works utilize images from the fishing industry and waterfront debris as a kind of representation of the ocean itself. The title of the project refers to the long rolling swell of the open ocean, that becomes a constant presence at sea, even in calm weather. Sailors at sea typically become so accustomed to it that it is unnoticed until it grows to a more menacing state with the approach of a storm. I am interested in exploring the patterns of habitual risk taking in a particularly difficult marine environment, and the relationship that has to our collective response to a global climate storm.