whelm
/(h)welm/
verb
engulf, submerge, or bury (someone or something).
"a swimmer whelmed in a raging storm"
noun
an act or instance of flowing or heaping up abundantly; a surge.
"the whelm of the tide"
A collaboration between Anna Whalen and Ali Giffen-Johnson.
The project began very simply with a decision to use a how-to-tie-knots manual and 100 feet of white rope. The shape of the piece emerged on the third day in response to the gigantic boulders (large glacial erratics) in Kejimkujik Lake. As a group, we paddled around these in awe.
"Whelm" refers to the collective reality of personal survival stories, how they differ in detail but are universal encounters.
Participants in this project responded to several pointed questions about survival and self. They, at times very vulnerably, related their personal and revealing stories to Anna Whalen as she sat weaving them into the mask. It was agreed that their stories about physical, mental or situational survival would never be retold.
Historically, head coverings are very charged; in this project, the head covering was worn during the taking of the photographs. While it conceals the individual's identity, it also acts a visual metaphor for our human sameness, how our 'just trying to survive' experiences create a shared resonant empathy.
Ali Giffen-Johnson photographed the participants in the Kejimkujik wilderness, in a conceptual equivalent to the story they told. She did not know the details of the accounts, only the essence, as described in three words.
