Rachel Cunningham
An Oceanic Feeling
(Work in progress)
An Oceanic Feeling is a response to our era, characterised by an impression of instability and uncertainty. A time in which limitless connection is at our fingertips but the ability to know and understand others often feels beyond our reach, where truth can slip from our grasp to become fiction, and history is hidden, obscured or rewritten. These images constitute my attempt to navigate this uncertainty through a series of separations, obfuscations and contrasts.
Images of the sea are combined with glimpses of the sky and objects found above and below the ground. The sea, itself a space of disconnection and connection,
is separated from the sky by the horizon. The horizon line provides us with a sense of orientation and, in its connection to navigation and linear perspective, a grounding in time and space that connects us to the world.
This grounding is pulled into question by surfaces that obscure the picture, highlighting the photograph as an image; as separated from the world. These contrast with the other photographs which offer clarity within a decontextualised visual space.
