History viewed through water

I have spent most of this exceptionally mild winter putting a concentrated effort to filming underwater. I have learned that there is always more patience to be acquired. I began this project in Hawaii, and continued it in the fresh water here in Switzerland. I am drawn to the distortion of water and the change of perspective. They become dreamlike, as memory itself. I have no idea what is to become of these videos, but I fell they are important to my work, even though they are in the developing stage.

In Hawaii I built underwater installations in a calm bay, but the subject was not calm. My investigations into the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll. I began building underwater events that were filmed in segments. Based around the declassified joint Army/Navy accounts where the men were ordered to throw their radioactive decontamination gloves into the sea, but it was they that were radioactive. I began with one line out of a military account and have continued on from there.

What a departure you may think, but it all ties in to the history of a place. Much of my work is rooted in location and the fingerprint of history on that place, but I am also working like a librarian, sorting history so that we may again find it and re-examine it. It is the history of my family as well. I come from a family of vetrans who were silenced by war. I speak the words they were not allowed. I began this project when my last Uncle died in silence.

In Switzerland I first became interested in the swans due to their historic significance tied to the German Military. I continue to face history in my work and look forward to the day when I can piece the elements together into an installation.