Exhibitions

Blue

November 1, 2023 - December 30, 2023

Security Credit Union Gallery

Blue is a moving image work by Canadian artist and University of Michigan alum, Laura Magnusson. In the artist’s words, “Alone on an ocean tundra, wearing a protective clamshell-like parka and winter boots, I arduously move, exhale, and burrow through the afterlife of sexual violence. The medium of water, with its destructive potential and capacity to heal, in addition to the weight of an air tank, with its promise of survival and threat of impending emptiness, hold the fullness of traumatic experience. In this silent, psychic landscape, I bear witness to the complex nature of trauma and the ongoing process of healing.” Shot entirely underwater, 70 feet beneath the surface of Cozumel, Mexico, Blue is the impact statement the artist was never permitted to give before a court of law. 

 Magnusson is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in Montreal, Quebec (Tiohtià:ke/). Magnusson’s current research-creation explores and elucidates felt experiences of trauma through installation, sculpture, drawing, performance, and video. She is a trained scuba diver who has filmed underwater in Iceland and Mexico, using the medium water as a site for healing and reconnecting to the body. Magnusson holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Art from the University of Michigan (2019), and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Concordia University, Montreal.