Winner of the 2007 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award
Creator: Glynis Humphrey
Nominator: Ingrid Jenkner
Seconders: Jan Peacock, Sara Angelucci
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.
