Blue, Laura Magnusson
Blue is a single-channel, 12-minute video projected on a gallery wall at roughly 16 by 9 feet, played on a loop. Shot entirely underwater, 70 feet beneath Cozumel, Mexico, it depicts a woman traversing a vast sandy seafloor resembling a snowy tundra; the surface is never visible. She wears a brown winter jacket (referencing a clamshell in its growth-ring patterning), winter boots, underwear, and a weightbelt, but no goggles or standard buoyancy control device. A loose air tank, held in her mouth via a three-foot hose, supplies her with air. She interacts with a small dollhouse (referencing an iceberg), featuring a tiny figurine of herself stuck in the doorway. At times, the woman struggles against a strong current, digs and burrows into the sand, or attempts to leap upward. Night scenes punctuate the otherwise cold blue expanse, showing her engulfed in darkness while silvery-blue fish dart around her. Cinematography by Liquid Motion Film
Title: Blue
Artist: Laura Magnusson
Date: 2019
Medium/Materials: Performance art
Dimensions: Video: 00:12:00 (played on loop), 485 cm wide x 275 cm high
Form/Genre: Performance art, video
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Embodiment; Recovery; Survival
Artist Statement:
Blue (an underwater video documenting the afterlife of sexual violence). In sexual violence cases, legal and healthcare frameworks operate together, shaping how traumatic effects are documented and witnessed. From issuing a police statement to undergoing a forensic examination to testifying, she was required to compartmentalize herself repeatedly to fit the system’s terms. The pursuit of factual truth actively excluded her felt knowledge.
Blue responds by giving form to Magnusson’s subjective experiences. Through visual metaphor, underwater movement, editing strategies, and large-scale immersive projection, the artwork expresses psychological, emotional, and relational impacts of sexual violence and its institutional aftermath. The relentless current makes struggling to move forward palpable. The air bubbles that escape her lips become material traces of her silenced speech.
The work engages two themes: “Reclaiming the Patient Narrative,” expressing survivor experience beyond institutional accounts; and “Structures and Systems,” critiquing how interconnected frameworks of care and justice can exacerbate trauma and fail to accommodate the fullness of traumatic experience.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
Blue was created in response to Magnusson’s experiences as a survivor of sexual violence, living with PTSD, and contending with healthcare and legal systems that failed to recognize the full breadth of that experience.
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
Learn More:
Instagram: @laura.k.magnusson