Isaiah Wilson

The project

Inspired by a childhood dream in which my home was submerged underwater, I wanted to create an unusual piece that would allow the viewer to experience this with me, up close. It was a dream that tells of the uprooting of my childhood, my home, the anxiety and fear of displacement, all portrayed beautifully, within the nostalgia of my past.

I wanted to create a sensory and visual object that evokes a visceral emotion through the magic of cinema. The space to create had to resonate with the house I grew up in. In the room, there are photos from my childhood, showing my parents, my brothers, and me at Disneyland, or a photo of my parents’ wedding. The interview you hear at the beginning and end is a recording of my grandfather talking about his years as a professional basketball player in the NBA.

The film approaches the impossible and questions our human condition. The way we interact with water has become less adventurous. We go to the beach just to dip our feet in the water and take pretty pictures. It’s rare to find people who truly interact with water, like swimming or playing, for example. Water has become a backdrop, completely foreign to us.

I want to reconnect the viewer to this natural element, one of the things that makes up and surrounds us, while exploring the danger it can pose, and creating desire and curiosity around it.

Implementation

SUBMERGE was filmed in July 2022 at the René Hartmann Pool in Dudelange with invaluable help from the Sub Aqua Sport team. Editing, color grading, and sound work are now complete.

However, we faced difficulties in gathering all the necessary resources from the outset, as this type of project isn’t often undertaken, and it’s complex to classify it into a defined category like dance or video.

Once we overcame the difficulties, I remember a specific moment that marked my enthusiasm: it was the day we proved the concept would work. We were rehearsing at the Dudelange pool and had just received the tools that would allow us to submerge the camera underwater. That was the moment we realized the project would work and that what we had envisioned would finally materialize. A special moment of emotion that engulfed all of us and encouraged us to push this complex project through to completion.

In fact, the project is a complex marriage of multiple disciplines. I believe it’s important for Luxembourg to have dedicated funding for transdisciplinary artistic approaches, enabling creators to develop more complex projects that live up to their artistic ambitions.

Objective

I want this film to travel through numerous festivals, museums, and exhibition spaces. It represents an introduction to my artistic approach and the projects I wish to pursue throughout my career. It invites reflection on the body, displaced from the stage, subjected to different forces, spaces, and time frames.

I choose projects that ignite my curiosity and that can only be realized if the answer to the question, "Can this impossible project be achieved?" is yes. I believe one should always try and never hesitate to attempt.

Successfully bringing such a complex project to life encourages me to continue creating projects that break out of the traditional boundaries of creation. Challenging the medium is what interests me.