Daniel Wheeler, “GULP #022”, 2006, Archival pigment print face mounted to 1_4” acrylic with hanging strainer, Edition of 8 (Edition of 3 for 54” x 54”)
Everyone knows how a “birds-eye view” allows you to see everything from above. But what if one were to look up? Daniel Wheeler answered this intriguing question in his photographic installation Gulp.
Wheeler could have chosen a variety of different places to capture an underwater image—a barrier reef, an ocean, or a lake—all would have sufficed. However, Wheeler didn’t choose any of these options. Instead, he captured these. images in local swimming pools. One of the pools had trees hanging on several sides, creating not only the view of the sky and watery surface, but also the greenery above. While its several falling leaves were usually a challenge to clean, they were also a perfect new beautiful way to capture the underwater world.
To create his work, Wheeler would arrive at the site, don his wetsuit—complete with goggles, air tank, flippers, and waterproof camera—and then dive to the bottom of the pool.
From below, looking up, he was able to capture the perfect image. Wheeler’s camera caught the floating leaves, the swaying tree branches, and the dappled sunlight shining through the water. It was like a reverse reflection of the world—what’s above, now submerged and flipped upside down. One could almost compare it to Alice and Wonderland’s Looking Glass, but instead, Wheeler was capturing a new perspective of beauty.
Gulp isn’t just a collection of pretty poolside pictures. It’s a playful invitation to look at the world in a new way—one that challenges our daily vision. Instead of focusing on what’s above us, he asks us to look up from below, to embrace a view we rarely consider. Wheeler asks us to engage with our environment in a way that focuses on what is above, turning a pool into a portal to a strange and unfamiliar world.
Image Bibliography:
Wheeler, Daniel. Gulp #009, 2006. www.wheelermade.com/available-work/p/gulp-009-2006
Wheeler, Daniel. Gulp #064, 2007. www.wheelermade.com/available-work/p/gulp-064-2007
Wheeler, Daniel. Gulp #031, 2007. www.wheelermade.com/available-work/p/gulp-031-2007
Daniel Wheeler, “GULP #009”, 2006, Archival pigment print face mounted to 1_4” acrylic with hanging strainer, Edition of 8 (Edition of 3 for 54” x 54”)
Daniel Wheeler, Gulp #021 Photograph, 2007
Daniel Wheeler, Gulp #020 Photograph
Daniel Wheeler, GULP #034, 2007.jpg
Daniel Wheeler, Gulp #055 Photograph, 2007
DANIEL WHEELER,
Born
Lives and works
Education
BIBLIOGRAPHY
An internationally recognized and exhibited artist, Daniel Wheeler creates in diverse media, varied scale, and in a range of contexts from private to public. The son of an educator and a therapist, he received his BA from Brown University in 1984 and after living in Japan, settled in Los Angeles in 1985. With 40 years of experience in making thematically sensitive, interactive, and highly crafted objects and environments, he is at once sculptor, builder, set designer, furniture maker, fabricator, and photographer. His design for The Campbell Hall Center for Spiritual Practice, in Los Angeles, CA won an award from The Interfaith Forum on Religion Art and Architecture (IFRAA) in the category of Liturgical/Interior Design.