The Tub

Hello! My name is Levi: also known as LM Fischer. I was born in 1983 in New York City and have been creating since I was a small child. As a trans, queer creator, I usually play with the concept of emotions and escape in many of my works. I try to use both minimalism and surrealism to highlight the sensation of aloneness in what otherwise would be familiar and comforting environments. I use a combination of photo-bashing, digital painting, and a proprietary computer software to create. This piece, titled "The Tub", from a larger collection titled "These Places Do Not Exist", I use water as a main feature as pools are often considered a portal: reflecting both a life in the margins, transition and death. In this work, I wanted to evoke a tension between the constructed and the natural that brings about questions about control and vulnerability. The architectural elements of the room assert order and containment, but the vast, untamed and alien forest looms just outside as a representation of forces we cannot control. The glass is only a fragile barrier here; it blurs these distinctions, turning the viewer into a voyeur trapped in liminality: observing but also exposed and very much alone. The interplay of light and shadow intentionally amplifies this unease. The golden, luminous panels are warm, anchoring and comforting in an otherwise geometrically skewed and off-kilter environment. The bath itself, ostensibly a site of comfort too, becomes ominous in its restless motion, suggesting submersion, loss of control, or even an unseen presence stirring below the surface. In this piece I was attempting to evoke something reminiscent of the subversive spatial dynamics found in contemporary works by Olafur Eliasson, where environments challenge and sometimes destabilize the viewer’s perceptions. Despite my intention of creating an unmooring in this image, I can’t help but admit: I would soak in this tub. Wouldn’t you?