Nell Daniel, MFA, PhD

CV

Thalassophilia Chic interrogates traditional luxurious patterns (visual and behavioral), asking: “How and what does the decorative hide in this moment?”

Thalassophilia Chic

This work invites viewers to consider what we have done to our society and environment under the cover of ‘beauty’ and rampant consumption. It exposes dark truths in our art and design traditions by making colonial violence, racism and toxic whiteness hyper-visible. 

I create visual patterns inside seaweed shapes that become garments and textiles, prompting questions about how we’ve been impacted by narratives hidden in patterns. Does the repetition of ugly elements normalize, camouflage and discourage criticality? Are ugly actions tolerated when repeated often enough?  

Inside the patterns, photos of forensic X-rays and maps encourage investigation. Classical-style white European sculpture suggests how our history has been sugar coated with false innocence. A 9 year old has proudly signed their paper gun shooting target. The cut out holes and translucency moves your eye through the surfaces to form connections between images, peeling apart the layers to ask:  “How and what does the decorative hide in our contemporary moment?” 

Restorative justice requires this type of pattern breaking and truth telling about the systems that have broken our humanity. I want viewers to look deep below the surface (Thalassophilia = love of deep water) to embrace the metaphor of seaweed, which is a seductively decorative healing, cleansing, and nourishing substance. This artwork is profoundly relevant right now because it investigates the ghosts of violence under the surface of our art and design world.

White Patterns 

Nell’s practice is guided by Claudia Rankine and John Lucas’ advice to “Turn the camera around and put the lens on the white lived experience, expose toxic whiteness and make it visible.” The artwork reconstructs and re-contextualizes scarves, wallpaper, silver cups, coloring books, and architecture to encourage audiences to see the dark truths that simmer beneath the surface of everyday objects. These art pieces reveal how possessions and appearances give white privileged people a false sense of superiority that damages others as well as themselves. How has the aesthetic of wealth distracted us from seeing and confronting injustice?

Patterns on an oversized 8x8 foot organza scarf look luxurious from a distance, but horrifying up close, prompting the question: Does simple repetition also normalize ugly behaviors that become tolerated? If so, how do we get each other to identify and question them? A Damask wallpaper containing icons of white cupid garden ornaments appears decorative at first. But for those willing to see it, the familiar icons participate in arrogant, violent and self destructive acts. White people hide behind innocent surfaces and get away with this all the time. 

Real comments made by white privileged women in March 2020 such as “Does the cleaning lady still need social distancing?” are cut out over the mouth of white paper Covid masks - when does superiority become more of a priority than compassion, empathy and conscience? How have white women’s need to control their appearance become so crucially important that they have hidden dark emotions such as rage, devastation, eroticism to the point where it destroys them? 

Mothers pass on the suppression of feelings and privileged identity-formation to the next generation of curious children, eager to please, who soak them up like a sponge. How are trusting children even more vulnerable to internalized narratives in design objects? A typical child’s coloring and word-tracing book encourages viewers to form their own conclusions about how children learn violence and white privilege, perpetuating systems of inequity. 

Museum display cases contain silver baby cups as artifacts of the ‘White American Aristocracy’ species. Formal text labels describe how their owners’ cruel actions were hidden by beautiful appearances. How did the babies grow up that way? This installation invites a critique of how our cultural institutions have overlooked the truth under the facade of our culture, and the patrons of our ‘great works of art’ have often been exempt from accountability. Nell’s artwork invites others to join her in conversation with the ghosts under the surface of our art and design world.

Thalassophobia (Fear of Deep Water) 

These high-resolution photos of damaged boat surfaces tell stories about what they’ve seen under the surface of the water. They  encourage viewers to look deep beneath our damaged surfaces and question our assumptions about beauty. How might our beautiful images and behaviors have damaged us by covering up injustice? Can damage to our cultural norms be beautiful if it leads to truth-telling and restorative justice? They suggest resilience - when we are unafraid to look close enough below the surface of damaged surfaces, we can see new life.Only if we are unafraid to look beneath the surface and into the deep water can we discover the truths we need to evolve.