If I lived in the Ocean

Paula describes her work as an intuitive process, having a symbiotic relationship with the materials she uses, their qualities and origins.

The materials are sublimated and transformed in order to better understand the relationship with them from both a personal and collective perspective. Jung was one of the first to introduce the idea of collective unconscious, using the ocean as a symbol. Consciousness, like the ocean, is indivisible. It can be peaceful or violent, nurturing or destructive; intrinsic qualities in nature, and humanity.

In the film Solaris, a psychologist was sent into space to evaluate whether a space station should continue to study an oceanic planet (Solaris), only to arrive and discover that the ocean was reproducing memories of the scientists. The film investigates the impact of the ocean, as metaphor, of the unexplored depths of the human psyche. The film demonstrates that the search for meaning via scientific inquiry is limited, because the intrinsic laws of nature operate outside of the scope of the intellect. We participate in nature by observing it. Through observation we change it, and it changes us.

The ocean doesn’t know what water is, because it is that. Paula’s question ‘If I am the ocean’ is part inquiry, part understanding, of Being.

What quality of consciousness recognizes itself?

Daniel Campbell July 2021
Atami, Japan