Isla Davie

Sleeping. Dreaming. Crying. Swimming. Thinking. Feeling. Being.

My work investigates life as a human. I believe involuntary states allow us to access a purer state of being, closer to ourselves. From watery womb to watery world, I consider being in water to be viscerally imbedded in our humanness. To swim is to be held in that which our bodies are made in and made of. This is perhaps the closest we can get to returning to the womb (the home?). I believe water is a gateway to pure being and the thread that sews all states of being together.

My work primarily takes the form of pencil on paper. I find this to be a language and process of purity and simplicity. I am mindful to only incorporate what I feel is necessary in an artwork to invoke particular thoughts or feelings within myself and the viewer. My practice explores common experiences of involuntary fundamental human states, and my own memories, associations, reflections, and perceptions of being a human. I intend to attain a feeling of absence of temporality that is often present in certain involuntary states. For example, we do not perceive time in the midst of deep sleep. I aim to remain as close as possible to a sense of everything and nothing. This, I believe, is our fundamental state, and what involuntary states of being allow us to gain access to.