Down, Down to the Water
Audio, 13:42
The garage door wheels itself open and my beloved, Julien, and I wheel ourselves out towards a steep hill down, down to the water.
Down to the Water is a meditation on the wisdom and lessons water offers: comfort in impermanence, strength in fluidity; threat if her power is underestimated. It was recorded and mixed at Anchor Bay in Gibsons, BC, where my mother lives. In it are textures of my footsteps to and from the shore, a blue heron calling, people passing by with dogs, my wheelchair powering on and driving, Julien’s scooter driving, boats, cars, groaning pier. I end this piece singing and humming to myself the section I remember of The River, by Coco Love Alcorn, which I learned from Vanessa Richards and sing with the Woodwards Community Singers in Vancouver. I sing this song often to myself to honour the ocean and calm myself.
I hope this piece, worn or touched or grazed on your skin may offer a glimmer of the embrace of healing that I felt when I created it.
Warmly,
Aimee
We get back home to Mum’s, wheel up her DIY ramp. I scurry to the bathroom, running warm water over my numb, west coast winter hands. I pour a few drops of lavender oil in the filing sink and inhale.
Aimee Louw is a media artist, writer and MA Candidate in Media Studies at Concordia. Her work explores landscape, mobility, stillness and expressions of embodied knowledge through poetry. Approaching her work from her position and experience as a white, queer, crip, settler Canadian, Aimee’s Masters Research-Creation experiments with ways to chip away at settler fantasies that are found in some articulations of accessibility. Aimee contributes to CBC Radio, Canadaland, GUTS Magazine, the Geeky Gimp. Her films have been screened at the Leeds Queer Film Festival and the upcoming Scottish Queer International Film Festival. She is looking forward to writing her debut novel, You Deserve Everything.
