Immerse: Jason Shulman

British artist Jason Shulman’s work encompasses sculpture, photography, painting  and film, often incorporating scientific experimentation. Five years ago, he took up  swimming in his local pool, the London Fields Lido. Soon he was swimming regularly  every day, moving in a medium other than air. This began to have a profound effect  on how he experienced his own body. 

‘Once my head is under water, I am not subject to the usual earthbound forces.  Gravity is different. It’s an otherworld. Alien. Viscous. Glassy. My only view is the  thousands of tiles beneath. And, because I wear a central snorkel, I can breathe, I  am flying.’ Jason Shulman  

To create a visual language for experiencing the invisible forces of being within  water, Shulman experimented with all sorts of materials from pencil, paint and resin  to upholstery pins, map pins, tacks, mosquito netting and wire scourers, applying  them to different surfaces, like paper and mirror, or putting them behind frosted  glass. Through the resulting series of wall-hung works and sculptures, Shulman  engages with water from a fresh artistic perspective, managing to convey this  powerful multi-sensory but invisible encounter.

‘Visually representing the feeling of these fluid dynamics and turbulence is like trying  to paint the breeze, so I began looking at everything as potentially watery.’  Jason Shulman 

Immerse is Jason Shulman’s second solo exhibition at the Rebecca Hossack Art  Gallery. Currently living and working in East London, Shulman has exhibited across  Europe and the United States since the 1990s, and his works are held in important  private collections across the globe.