Water Graves by Valerie Loichot is a profound exploration of the ocean as both a literal and metaphorical grave, particularly in relation to the Middle Passage and the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. Loichot examines how water serves as a site of memory, mourning, and transformation, holding the weight of untold histories lost beneath its surface.
One of the book’s most powerful themes is the duality of water as both life-giving and destructive. Loichot delves into how the ocean, while capable of erasing physical traces, becomes a vast memorial for those who perished in its depths. Her poetic reflections on the ocean’s capacity to obscure and reveal offer a nuanced understanding of how water embodies loss, survival, and cultural resilience.
Loichot captures the tension between water as both a destructive and life-giving force. This duality inspires my Lost and Found series, where I use marine waste—objects abandoned or displaced by hurricanes—as materials to create sacred vessels. Just as Loichot discusses the ocean as a space of burial, mourning, and sometimes recovery, my art reclaims these discarded objects from the water’s aftermath, transforming them into symbols of resilience and memory. With this series, each piece I create is a tribute to those lost in the Atlantic, while also reflecting on the environmental and cultural devastation left in the wake of these storms.
Loichot’s discussion of water as a boundary between life and death, presence and absence, resonates with my own artistic exploration of memory and spiritual protection. She writes about how water can obscure and reveal, how it holds the stories of the past even as it erases physical traces. This is something I aim to reflect in my work—the idea that what is lost in the water isn’t truly gone but rather transformed, just as I transform marine waste into something meaningful.
Loichot’s work is essential for anyone interested in how environmental and historical forces converge in the symbolic and real-world power of the sea. Through Water Graves, she reveals the emotional depth of the ocean’s role in shaping cultural identity, memory, and history.