Reading Visual Cultures

Georgia Russell, “Fishing Nets” (2018) cut print on paper (Kozo) 47 ¼ x
59 x 6 2/3 inches (photo by Gilles Mazzufferi, © Georgia Russell,
images courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve, St. Moritz/Paris/Köln)

Georgia Russell’s
work of a cut print on paper made of Kozo fiber, “Fishing Nets” (2018)
might be a vision of what I fish would see as it lays gasping for breath
at the bottom of a net. It’s a swirl of sea and air and maybe a patch
of sun. Possibly it’s a deep darkness that fitfully clouds this vision
as a permanent night encroaches. Or it might be that Russell has made
the work a window into a littoral zone where seaweed swims up and
effloresces into mushrooming shrubs and the horizon disappears within a
domain where all is motion. Still, there are what looks like boats
visible in the gloaming, their bows, sterns, and sails curving like
cursive vessels surfing the waves.

Seeing What the Fish Might See