Water Reflections

Alexandra Gould

A seemingly simple question – is there one ocean or are there many?

I pondered what I “knew” and what I thought, logically tracing memory maps from country to continent, an image of the globe to a planetary perspective and I wondered . . . What is an ocean?

If it can’t be contained, it can’t be singular and delineated and since water can be three distinct states; fluid, gas or solid; and everything in between, it can’t be contained.

I reflected on ice cubes in my freezer expanding when frozen – water interacting with its environment, so “No,” I concluded, a huge mass of water can’t be contained, it can’t be singular.

If one ocean doesn’t exist, five separate oceans can’t exist, either. I was dismantling definitions and nurturing new ideas that helped contextualize what I’ve discovered and learned about our world.

I was the Expedition Artist on the Five Deeps Expedition, privileged to journey with Victor Vescovo, Patrick Lahey, Professor Alan Jamieson, and Rob McCallum and their remarkable teams. I recommend visiting the website to take a peek at those stories. This short reflection is possible because of that experience. The wonder and interest people have in that expedition is long lasting and will grow, and I am fortunate to be asked to contribute to South Writ Large as a result.

“Water” resonates so strongly within my evolving thoughts which surged on an amazing journey with the Five Deeps. I have childhood memories of standing at the end of a jetty, only twenty meters into the estuary of the River Thames and gazing at the changing blues of the sky as it sloped away beyond the water. I believed I was in a rare sweet spot that showed me the curvature of the planet (yes, I really thought I could see the shape of planet Earth). I have read books describing fruit seeds being germinated by bats and the influence of the Amazon River on the distribution and fertilization of these seeds in the vast surrounding environments. It’s incredible that pollen rises and contributes to the formation of clouds and haze; water is always pivotal.

Learning about rivers of water in the atmosphere and James Lovelock’s theory of Gaia, I find myself genuinely excited by the scale of water’s influence. New theories are evolving all the time, and I relished learning about architecture and its intrinsic connection to energy in each civilization – water flows through Barnabas Calder’s book. How interesting then, that I can’t paint water just as I can’t paint air.

I’ve included images here that all tell a story about water, be it a journey on or through water, or a life existing in it.

* * *

The Abyssal Grenadier painting is a warning.

Inspired by a pirate flag, it looms defiantly in the blackness. Working with the eminent marine ecologist, Professor A. Jamieson, on the subject of deep-sea life and pollution, the 2019 exploration and human dives into the deep-sea trenches are both exciting and destabilizing. Like the painting it brings issues of our own mortality and the health of our planet into sharp focus.

 

Through the crushing pressure of the Deep’s trenches, a nimble and inquisitive face lights up the absolute darkness. At L.F.’s arrival, billowing clouds of sediment churn up the trench floor. This is captured just moments before the view is obscured by the ocean bed of life, food, waste and history. Boldly painted, the radiant white light sears across the canvas at all angles in homage to the Five Deeps Expedition, seeking to discover and illuminate so many unknowns.

 

The painting represents validation of Triton’s goal to build a DNV/GL certified submersible designed and engineered for repeated use at any depth. A scientific lander is released from the sediment and in the top right of the painting, the spherical casing strapped to the lander encapsulates the $200,000 OMEGA watch that was stranded in the deepest place on the planet.

The bold colors and repetition of the lander’s lines show the dynamic powerful moment that the trench floor gives up the lander and as the sediment blooms into the crystalline ocean, the lander rockets upward to the surface over 10,000 meters above. It captures the momentous elation, accomplishment and validation of so much work and dedication.

 

The Limiting Factor is alert in the quiet, dense suspension of the deep sea.

Above her a riot of light cuts across the sky, it flows with the waves and clouds reveling in the last hours of the day. Sunlight bathes the starboard side of the Pressure Drop’s steel hull as she sits on the ocean.

The scale of the Deep Submersible Support Vessel reflects her equipment and crew numbers. Her impressive stature buoyant in the ocean juxtaposes with the lightness of the Limiting Factor, who is poised to descend to record breaking dives with a maximum crew of two.

 

The DSSV Pressure Drop sits near the horizon top right, with a view of her A-frame. The unique two-person Deep Diving Sub Limiting Factor is center left among the softly lit bubbles of her ascent from the deep ocean.

 

The Ghost Shark boldly displays the wonderful variety of our deep-sea oceans. Thick layered paint depicts the playful appearance with “smiles” of the electroreceptor cells. Chimeras are a diverse group of fish with many distinctive features and colors. The sweeping ray-like movement of its fins is caught in the flashlight. Once the light has revealed its peculiarities, it’ll return to the dark again.

* * *

I can represent states of water, I can interpret views of water, but water (like air) is an amazing force of our planet’s nature and when I try to capture it – it’s elusive. My portraits of fish show the creature cast in the light of a human invention surrounded by the darkness of the watery deep ocean.

On a microscopic level I could depict life within the ocean, the remarkable everything that is supported and made possible by our water planet. I could even paint water with debris, particulate, various states of air trapped in water or light reflected and refracted of water. But I can’t envisage how I can paint water or air without abstracting these fundamental elements – which are the reason for our existence.

To me they are invisible and unimaginable without a contrasting element. (I sometimes wonder how I think myself into these predicaments.)

Water is so permeable and remarkable, everything I can think of depends upon it and yet I can’t paint it or even imagine it on its own, as a singular body. I am in awe of water and all it contains and supports, just as I am in awe of atmosphere and our amazing planet.

As an inquisitive woman, I am naturally an artist. I create work with color, texture and form. Observing the world and my experiences, I realize I think all the time. It’s so natural to think a lot, like breathing it’s sometimes rapid and I’m often unconscious of the act. I was surprised that I answered the seemingly simple question with awe at the beautiful self-regulating water planet and relegated the term ocean to the very useful but incomplete description of our geographical perspective of Earth.

 

Book References:

James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia: Why The Earth Is Fighting Back – And How We Can Still Save Humanity. Penguin Books 2007 ISBN: 978-0-141-03535-2

Barnabas Calder: Architecture From Prehistory to Climate Emergency. A Pelican Book. Penguin Random House UK 2021 ISBN: 978-0-141-97820-8

 

Web Reference:

www.fivedeeps.com

www.alexandragould.co.uk