Submerge into the Hydro-Erotic – A Queer Becoming delves into the intimate, yet violent histories of queer bodies immersed in water by retelling the classic horror film ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’. Viewing through the lens of Queer theory in horror, to be the creature means to be othered, to exist on the periphery, shunned by humanity solely because of one's existence. To be queer is to be the outsider, to embody the monster, to be the creature—the creature from the Black Lagoon. Hydro-eroticism, at its core, emphasises how bodies of water serve as spaces where intimacy and eroticism unfold between human and non-human, distancing themselves from the violent terrains of heteronormativity. When one is submerged within a body of water, a hapticality is activated as perception becomes increasingly distorted and suspended in a state of otherness. It is through the act of surrendering oneself to the oblivious sensation of the dark, aqueous landscape that the hydro-erotic emerges. Thus, giving space for a queer becoming to manifest. To illustrate this, I have created an immersive soundscape that captures the sensation of the hydro-erotic using a variety of sound textures that gradually distort and engulf the senses. Laced within the soundscape, within the waters, lays the narrative spoken through poetics to encapsulate the fluid and binary bending nature water so often possesses. To be submerged within sound is to be submerged within the waters. This has been instructed by my printmaking practise within the printmaking studio. To accompany the soundscape, I have employed the medium of true grain screen-printing as a mode of hapticality, submerging the viewer within the forbidding waters of the Black Lagoon that suspends the creature central within the triptych. This is realised through dark, ambiguous, erotic, and tactile mark-making to portray the waters’ intimate and potentially corrupting touch. 

I fall

I fall in and out

In and out of my myself

With every breath

Every breath I breathe

With a depth

A depth that gets deeper

And deeper

Tonight, and every night

I elude

Elude myself into nothingness

Nothingness is what I famish

To turn into

Into myself

To lay underneath  

Underneath my skin

To be my breath

My blood

To be my heartbeat

I can exist here

Here is my refuge

Inside a humming

Humming away

Away from my reality

My reality of being

Being on this vessel

This vessel that feels

Feels alive

Alive with a rage

A rage that swells

Swelling by the malice

The malice of man

To subdue

To supress

To silence

Silence the existence

The existence of othering

Othering bodies

Bodies of a contradiction

Of a mutation

Bodies of a seduction

It is this that brings us here

Here on this vessel

To subdue

To supress

To silence

To silence the creature

The creature that simply exists

Existing alone

Every day I awake

Awake from a song

A song that only I can hear

It gets louder

And louder

Louder with each night

The days go by

I don’t know where we are

Where we are going

Where we have been

But I can feel it

It is getting closer

Closer to me

I can feel it

Is it the creature?

The creature that sings?

Sings the song

The song only I can hear

It is sore

Soaring through the water

This water that stings

Stinging my mind

I smell the salt

The salt that caresses

Caresses its way though

Through this vessel

This vessel that keeps me prisoner

I feel the salt

Scratching

Scratching my skin

My skin that burns

My skin that blisters

Blistering with a desire

A desire that festers

Festering its way through

Through my body

Through my mind

I awake

Awakening from the song

The song that bleeds

Bleeding from my ears

It is here

It is now

Now is here

Hearing the creature

The creature that cries

Crying for the mercy

The mercy that did not show

Showing nothing

Nothing but a hatred

A hatred of othering

Othering bodies

Bodies of a contradiction

Of a mutation

Bodies of a seduction

Seduced by the chains

The chains that abrade

Abrading away

Away at his flesh

His flesh that gleams

Gleaming with a torture

A torture that drips

Dripping down

Down his perfect design

A design of monstrosity

Of blasphemy

A design of rhapsody

The days go by

By my gaze

Gazing at me

His body touched

Touched by my eyes

My eyes seeing through a sympathy

A sympathy for the creature

The creature that cries

Crying the song

The song only I can hear

Hearing a plea

A plea for his demise

His demise over the malice

The malice of man

I feel the suffering

Suffering for simply existing

Existing alone

Alone I see

I see this creature

I see me

Tonight

Tonight is the night

The night I unearth

Unearthing of myself

Into the waters

The waters that roar

Roaring with a lividity

A lividity for the return

The returning of the creature

The creatures unbounding

Unbounding from the malice

The malice that abrades

Abraded into his flesh

To escape this vessel

This vessel that feels

Feels alive

Alive with a rage

A rage that swells

It is here

It is now

Now is here

I look over

Over the edge

The edge this vessel

This vessel that keeps us prisoner

I feel the salt

Scratching

Scratching my skin

My skin that burns

My skin that blisters

Blistering with a desire

A desire for the creature

The creature that I see

I see him seeing me

I reach out

Reaching out to touch

To touch his perfect design

A design of monstrosity

Of blasphemy

A design of rhapsody

It fills my heart

My blood

It fills my breath

With a tenderness

A tenderness that consumes me

Consuming me into his arms

His arms that are bare

Baring the wounds

The wounds of this world

This world of suffering

Suffering for simply existing

Existing alone

Alone I see

I see this creature

I see me

I fall

I submit

Submitting to the submarine

Submitting to the waters

The waters that undo

An undoing

An undoing of self

I am selfless

Selfless for the creature

I descend

Descending into

Into the depth

A depth that gets deeper

And deeper

Deeper into the waters

The waters that consume

Consuming my senses

Sensing nothing

Nothing but an otherness

Nothing but the need

The need to touch

I fall

I fall into

Into my bed

My seabed

The seabed that suspends

I am suspended

Suspended in oblivion

Within the waters

The waters that asphyxiate

Asphyxiating me into

Into the erotic

The waters that kiss

A kiss I am inside of

To reach

Reaching out

Reaching out for the creature

His touch gives me a breath

A breath that fills

Filling up my lungs

My lungs with a love

A love that only exists

Existing in the waters

Unable to perceive

Perceiving the shape

The shape of you

I’ll find you

Finding you all around

All around me

Your presence fills my eyes

My eyes with your love

It humbles

Humbling my heart

For you are everywhere