The sea and the self: these are territories Janeanne Gilchrist explores and merges seductively in this work of intricately composed and infinitely ambiguous sub-aquatic images. Hers is a submerged world of spectral floating objects and mysterious seascapes, each seeking meaning and calling on us to find our own.
Free diving off the unpredictable coasts of Scotland, one breath at a time, Janeanne’s physical and creative element is sea water. She forages for objects in the depths - a tangle of fishing net, a singed seaman’s sou’wester, discarded fish gut, a decomposing plastic bag - the thoughtlessly discarded cast-offs of fishermen, of man. She searches out subjects – the spawning seaweed, the mesmerizing alien glow of a jellyfish, the stone-washed bones of a migratory bird.
Temperature, tide, time of year, weather, lunar cycles the unpredictable moods of the sea combine to create the elusive shape, the temporary touch, the momentary light, that will create the sea-change she desires. We hold our breath with her. We feel the call of her sea and slip under the surface with her flotsam and jetsam. We seem suspended above her seascapes.
We also feel the fear. Overcome, and yet present in every image. We sense the creature that lies beneath. A tangle of seaweed tugs us down, fibrous
and fecund. Above, Below, Beyond are also infused with submerged grief and evasive, finely textured feeling: the ghostly vulnerability of objects and clothing, carrying the disintegrating memories of their former purpose; the almost Autumnal, mournfully painterly seascapes; once-alive creatures in delicate tangled attachment.
Shot Freediving in the Norths Sea underwater
Location 58°36'41.0"N 3°27'07.9"W
Unfathomable Uncertainties of Death, attempting to comprehend the idea of life and death, but also myth, legend and reality, this work responds to the psyche of the human mind engaging us on multi levels and questioning the very essence of our time on this planet and how we got to where we are today..
My work is an ongoing observation of surface, space and perception. The juxtaposition between the organic and the invasion of the man made highlighting the complexities of our human relationships and the sea.
I am making images of a world that most people don’t get to see. The work explores the subconscious emotional memories, otherworldly fables and folklore of what lurks under the surface. It also features found items that had a place a function a use in an otherworld now abandoned adrift and discarded where they take on an ethereal distorted temporal beauty dissolving and breaking down in to the aquatic environment, now alien to their existence.
