The Swimmers
Christophe Jivraj

For the past three years, Christophe Jivraj has been working with and photographing a group of adults that are cognitively lucid and severely physically disabled. As an artist, he has attempted to give the viewer a window into the lives of this marginalized population. Swimming is used as a type of physical and mental therapy for the clients. In an effort to get closer to their reality, Jivraj has replaced the still image with the moving image in order to give the viewer a glimpse of the tenuous relationship his subjects have with movement.

In this installation, videos of his subjects swimming are synchronized and simultaneously projected, allowing the viewer to move around and within this underwater space. The swimming pool is a world where few people exist gracefully.  An aesthetic equality is created as the ordinary and commonplace is replaced by the strange and awkward. In the foreground, disabled and able-bodied individuals move awkwardly across the image, their upright suspension out of synch with this aqueous environment; in the background, individuals perform the banal and repetitive task of swimming length after length. The swimmers’ movements pull the viewer into this mesmerizing and rarely seen realm: the human aquarium.

Exhibition Date: September 12 to October 10, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, September 12, 7 to 10pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, September 13, 1pm in the Gallery

gallery   Richard Tosczak   Shantael Sleight