Aequoreal Series: The shape of summer, 2026
Acrylic on canvas
122 cm x 152 cm
Artist’s Statement
“AEQUOREAL” [(Adjective) archaic, rare, poetic. Latin for marine, oceanic] is an ongoing body of work that explores water as both subject and metaphor—a fluid, reflective medium through which ideas of memory, identity, and belonging unfold. Inspired by a recent encounter with Ancient Greek and Roman mythology in Italy, Madeleine Travers became increasingly interested in the symbolic role of water as a carrier of stories, histories, and shared cultural experience.
In this series, water functions as a living archive: a space where personal memory intersects with collective consciousness. Travers draws on the notion that water transcends geographical, cultural, and temporal boundaries, connecting individuals to one another, to ancestral histories, and to the environments they inhabit. Through layered acrylic surfaces and luminous passages of light, submerged and partially revealed figures emerge from fluid depths, suggesting identity not as fixed or singular, but as something continuously shaped through movement, encounter, and transformation.
The recurring motif of the half-submerged figure occupies a liminal space between visibility and concealment, presence and absence. High horizon lines emphasise the vastness of the ocean while alluding to the unseen narratives and memories that exist beneath the surface. Water becomes both mirror and threshold, inviting viewers into contemplative spaces where distinctions between self and other begin to dissolve.
Through “AEQUOREAL”, Travers proposes a more fluid understanding of identity and belonging—one rooted in connection, empathy, and shared experience. The work reflects on the ways memory, culture, and place flow together, shaping a collective human story that is constantly evolving.
