Tehom [the Deep] (2021)

Tehom [the Deep] was exhibited as part of Cessnock Contemporary, curated by Merryn Hull PhD, at Kiosk@The Tennis Club, Cessnock. This work was developed as part of the School Contemporary Art Mentoring Program (SCAMP) coordinated by Merryn Hull.

Photography: Isobel Markus-Dunworth (slides 1-3) and Merryn Hull (slides 4-6). Also pictured, Beneath by Lily Stothard.

I wrote an artist’s statement for the exhibition:

Tehom [the Deep] is a way of thinking through my experience of anxiety and depression, and of expressing my desire for healing, whether medical or spiritual. This work draws from religious and spiritual understandings of water as a healing or cleansing element. ‘Tehom’ is a Hebrew word, used in the opening lines of the book of Genesis to refer to the primordial, abyssal waters of creation, shrouded in darkness and waiting for the transformative word of God. This work is also informed by the psychoanalytic theories of the death drive and melancholia, according to which fantasies of death by drowning may be inspired by a desire to return to the encompassing waters of the womb.