Learning to Not Drown is a three minute long film of a performative sculpture that indulges intimate loss of control through confrontation of the permanence of pain held invisibly within the body. Treated inconsistently with purple to green changing thermal pigment, the surface mimics the appearance of a bruise healing to its later stage colors as my body interacts with the contours of the ceramic cast innertubes. Stand-ins for bodies and derived from life-rings in different stages of deflation, the ceramic inflatables metaphorically represent my personal theory, “learning to not drown.” This is the idea that successfully integrating the pain, trauma, and emotional labor involved in being human is an active survival mechanism and a transformative force.
