wildscape. literary journal

Title: The Fish // Artist: Anna Dauyl Rockswell

about the piece

“The Fish” is a melancholic depiction of a woman suspended between sensuality and symbolism. Elements of Pisces allude to intuition and fluid identity, while the black fur — a symbol of death in Kazakh culture — wraps her in a calm, inevitable stillness. The poppy flower appears as an opiate symbol, suggesting a slow, warm, engulfing death and a deep regression into the womb. The sensation mirrors sinking into deep water, into sleep — that quiet drowning where warmth, oblivion, and a return to origin converge. The work portrays feminine interpretation held within the quiet inevitability of death, folding regression, return to the womb, and the pull toward a “warm, friendly death” into one unified moment.

about the artist // Anna Dauyl Rockswell

NANA (Anna Dauyl Rockswell) is a Kazakh multidisciplinary artist based in Seoul. Heavily influenced by background in writing, dark expressionism, transgressive literature, counterculture movements, and Jungian psychoanalysis, her themes often circle the edges of contrarian art, visceral imagery, feminine experience, mental health interiority  and raw political & social commentary.

Instagram: @rockswellnana