Breathing Under Water – Glynis Humphrey

Winner of the 2007 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award

Creator: Glynis Humphrey

Nominator: Ingrid Jenkner

Breathing Under Water is  a richly complex video installation involving projection, sound, sculptural  objects and the engagement of the viewer.  It is an experiential work that  is all-consuming.  Its effect is sensuous and physical and it stays with  the participant in a visceral way, having the potential to change the  participants’ state of mind.  This is an ambitious work that stretches the  medium of video installation.  It speaks to a contrast between the  interior and the exterior, between the repulsive and the beautiful, between terror  and tranquility.  The work is experienced as an immersion of bodily, human  conditions* – birth, death, pregnancy, drowning.  Although it has strong  feminist content, its relevance is cross-cultural and resonates with all human  beings.  Overall, it is an impressive work on many planes:   intellectual, visual and sensual.