Drowning
- DROWNINGA metaphor of the big city life.
Drowning is a project that talks about the feeling of submersion that you can have living in a big city, due to social, work or overflow issues.There are as many ways of dealing with these sentiments that there are people,therefore there are as many portraits waiting to be done.
It made sense to present the series in the street considering its theme, leading to the street exhibitionsalong the banks of Parisian watercourses.An analysis article (in French) was later written by Alban Grosdidier and Solère Rétyon the origins of the reflexion that lead to the project. It is available here.First part was presented on the banks of River Seine, in January 2012. It was 2.5x2.5m.
- Second part was presented along the Canal Saint-Martin in July 2012,being an installation of 9 1.7x1.7m prints.Rain destroyed it less than 90 minutes after its installation, closing the loop on the meaningof the installation by creating a matriochka effect .
- // AFTER RAIN //
- This is why I drown in A City.Family is loud, noisy, messy and sticky. Immersed and yet separate, we don’t carve identitiesin the tentacles of shadowy gratitude, ghostly traditions, omnipresent acts of selflessness by elders;we slowly tear away, with bits sticking to us, falling away as we leave, geographically,mentally, emotionally and spiritually away. From the dense thick clouds of love, guilt, resentment,hope and devotion, I plunge into the thin waters of A City, submersing myself into traffic,noise, food, sex, fashion, new utterances and deafening self-silence. The cities are all transient half-way homes, for addicts and refugees. We are fleeing from the demons and negotiating peacewith them at the same time; these reflections in the grey pavements and potholes in front of each steplull us to believe the faster we run, the blurrier the ghosts. The cacophony of A City is somethingto focus my breathing. Will away the foliage that hangs over my head that inform me my roots are so deeply, painfully embedded in me. The pain of tearing away, of rebirth, of the futility of redrawing memoriesbecause the memories will not, cannot leave me. Like an oasis, the oceans of A City beckoned me in the sweat of noisy Family. But in the vastness of A City, where I sought newness by drowning in its waters,my weights were not enough. I needed more weight. So I ran. And running, here there and everywhere,I collected roots. Other people’s roots, ghosts, mini-mirages. Carrying on, dragging along,to sink tenuous feelers into a sandy bottom. Pretend I am free, like seaweed waving in the ocean.Seeming so free, light and easy in the sun… It is another forest in the ocean floor.
Seow Chin Pua - Thanks to the models : Rilat, Justine, Sinh, Basile, Cédric, Julien & Fred.Thanks to anyone that came and helped me do it : Laurie, Marie, Aurélien, Julie, Fabien, Basile,Fred, Nelly, Francis, Adin, JR, Solène, Gabriel, Hugo, Marie, Cédric & all those I did not know.
Photos of the second installation by Laurie Vidal and Fred Feuillet.
Project submitted to: Behance Talent Search: Student Edition
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