Elizabeth Paige Smith Art Girl Underwater
Elizabeth Paige Smith Art Girl Underwater, filmed in the Cayman Islands.
GIRL UNDERWATER
digital video / 7 minutes 31 seconds / 2006
DIRECTED + CAMERA + EDITED: Elizabeth Paige Smith
LOCATION: Grand Cayman Islands, B.W.I
MUSIC: Spiegel im Spiegel: 3 by Vladimir Spivakov + Sergej Bezrondy
I filmed Girl Underwater in the Cayman Islands where I grew up, spending most of my childhood building reefs underwater from found coral along seven mile beach. I’d return daily to investigate which tiny sea creatures and tiny fish would occupy my reef... sergeant majors, arrow crabs, among others. This film explores the focus and ritualistic practice I used to perform as a young girl. Melissa is a local girl who I met, she’s 13, the same age as I was when I connected most deeply to the sea. It was an incredibly natural interaction between us, and resulting is this solitary moment, authentically capturing the essence and the freedom I and she had as a young girl to float, to submerge and dream with my eyes open.
I’ve temped in this beautiful music, it satisfies the soul.