top of page

It is tempting to call my relationship to water something akin to obsession. Swimming, or rather being in water, feels as if I am dissolved. As if I have become part of it. Perhaps, it is more love than obsession, a kinder, more tender thing.

I spent the month of August in 2022 in Iceland working with cyanotypes; a slow-reacting alternative photographic process that produces blue high contrast imagery. The images can be exposed by sunlight and fixed in water. I soaked garments in the photosensitive emulsion and then wore them into various bodies of water around Iceland to document the ways in which they were affected and changed by the landscape. Since the exact chemical reactions that happen between the many different mineral rich waters and the photochemistry are unknowable, each cyanotype created was a unique ephemeral piece.

IMG_0214.jpeg
Videy 1 copy.jpg
winter2022036.jpg
DSC_7345.jpg
winter2022022.jpg

WATERBODY was started during an artist residency at SIM Reykjavik in August of 2022, find out more here. Selected pieces in from this project were shown at Zea Mays Printmaking's Sanford Gallery in February of 2023, alongside the works of Edda Sigurdardottir and Nancy Diessner, link to the digital gallery. It was an honor and delight to show my work alongside theirs.

Photo and video documentation for WATERBODY was done with assistance from Silvia Gentili, Auðbjörg Helga, and Caterina Kentworthy.

This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Northampton Arts Council through the BJ Goodwin Fund. 

  • Instagram

© Livvy Arau-McSweeney

bottom of page