A.J. SPRINGER

 I use an underwater environment to explore the dialectic metaphors and narratives the act of drowning can evoke based on primal instinct. I want to push the feeling of suffocation, a subconscious fear that resonates emotionally and physically. While making the series, it started as a more detached depiction of forms: a body engulfed underwater. As the scenes unfolded, they changed and expanded to multiple people interacting in a deep void. The images became a metaphor, where I explored my personal relationships through the pieces. They investigate both romantic relationships and intimacy within the self through connections and exchanges. There is a struggle between bodies in many scenes, where it's unclear whether they are saving or trying to pull each other down. The vague intention suggests the ambiguous nature of relationships where compromise and self-sacrifice come into play. The figures are trying to complete themselves with one another; one figure pushes the other up towards the surface and light. A metaphor for the couple being disconnected: the weight of the top figure keeps the bottom figure from emerging from the restraining situation, and vice versa. The forms eventually become distinctly separate; they are their own entities and share no limbs, forms, etc., indicating the importance of their individuality in forming bonds, transcending the confusion of the other fragmented and incomplete figures in these impassioned moments unfolding in the deep.