CHLOE RUSSELL

Resonant Ecologies | West Hebrides This May, I’m leading a small art & science sailing residency with @sailbritain . You can expect sound-led inquiry, time at sea, deep listening, and space to reflect on how we relate to land, sea, and each other. Open to artists, scientists, researchers, and curious practitioners. No sailing experience required. Applications close 31 January. Link in bio. 🩵💙🩵💙

This Mental Health Awareness Week, I’m thinking about Blue Mind, the idea that being near, in, on or under water can help us feel calmer, clearer and more connected. And it doesn’t have to be the ocean. It can be a river, canal, pond, fountain, swimming pool, bath, shower, rainfall, or even the memory of a blue place that made you feel safe. A few years ago I wrote about Blue Mind for @thamesestuarypartnership exploring how the Thames can support our wellbeing, even in the middle of the city. This year’s theme is action and sometimes the action is small: pause by water, listen, notice, breathe. Where is your Blue Mind place?

that blue mind feeling - calm, clear, connected did you know that being near, in, or under water can shift your whole state, even thinking of a blue memory can calm the mind what’s your best memory of water? 🤿 @sinaiwithshark @fox_lu_ with @red.sea.relax 📍 tiger reef, south sinai, egypt 📸 gopro13

Very excited to share that I’ve joined the Wilderness Art Collective 🌿🌊 I’ve followed the Collective’s work for a while, especially their projects exploring art, landscape, ecology and our relationship with the natural world, so it feels really special to now be part of this community. My practice brings together sound, photography, field recording, broadcasting and sci-art; exploring water, deep listening, microbial worlds, Blue Mind, eco-psychology and the more-than-human stories held within landscapes. Thank you so much to @wildernessartcollective for the warm welcome. I’m really looking forward to connecting with the other artists and sharing more soon. My artist profile is now live 🔗 in bio #WildernessArtCollective #ArtAndScience #SoundArt #NatureConnection #BlueMind

I thought the desert would be silent

What sounds connect us to the ocean? Some people hear waves in the distance. Others hear seabirds, pebbles rolling on a shore, or the quiet beneath the surface. Listening is one of the ways we begin to understand a place. So now I’m curious… What sounds connect you to the sea?

Chloe on the beach looking for crabs 🦀 @chloepresents 💠

see ya lata 2025 🔵 a year full of transformations & growth, laughter & tears, expansion & acceptance. sending nice things to my friends and family and beyond, bring on 2026 in full volume 🔥🐴 📸 @hannahbinney one of a few new angels in my life this year 🕊️

🌊 What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve ever found on the River Thames? These photographs were taken on the Thames foreshore in August 2013, opposite Tate Modern, by Chloe Russell. From a washed-up European eel to fragments of bone and shell, the tide reveals layers of life, history, and mystery beneath the city. The Thames is more than a river, it’s an ever-changing archive, shaped by wildlife, people and centuries of movement. 👀 What’s the strangest or most surprising thing you’ve spotted along the Thames? #RiverThames #ThamesForeshore #UrbanNature #HiddenLondon #LifeOnTheRiver #TidalThames #RiverStories

slides 1-8 some underwater pics using a disposable in the divine ras muhammad national park 🪸 highlights were seeing a school of squid(!), two napoleon wrasse, baby turtle, barracuda and a stingray 🥹 lowlights were getting touched by something on three fingers and ending up in the hospital - possibly fire coral but not confirmed 🙂‍↕️😙 the doctor in the hospital was so accommodating, she invited me to her wedding in cairo! slides 9-12 @hannahbinney catching me making friends with the locals slide 13 finger update approx 3 weeks after contact (it’s now been over a month and still not fully healed) 🫴🫦 slide 14 throwback to 2014 on my last red sea trip where I shredded my fingers inside an industrial indoor fan with @thom_holmes slide 15 evidence I still have hands

Close your eyes and think of the sea, where do you go? I was meant to try freediving this summer while on an art–science residency with the wonderful @floatingstorieslab , but I caught the flu last minute. It left me frustrated, and endlessly curious about what freediving might feel like. I became a PADI Advanced scuba diver at 19. I failed my first open water certificate sometime before as I couldn’t equalise my ears at four meters, which turned out to be a build up of wax. Alas, one week of salty ear drops followed by a glamours date with a pump and bucket, I was good to try again, and not only that: I could actually hear. I remember feeling confronted learning to dive. Is this really for me? Taking my first breath underwater, weights pulling me down, my body saying this isn’t normal, none of my friends were doing this. I remember looking up at my mum from the pool edge, desperately trying to telepathically signal SOS. Two weeks later I passed. I survived. I got a funny scuba ID photo (think pixie cut + afro curls). I felt deeply proud of myself and my abilities; it gave me a lot of confidence. Less than a month later, I went onto study @marineandnaturalhistory at @falmouthuni to learn all things nature and storytelling. In our second year we travelled to the dreamy land and sea of #MarsaAlam to spend two weeks photographing the #RedSea with @redsea.divingsafari . It was otherworldly and exciting. Who’d have known I’d spend the next eleven winters emailing travel agents and friends to go back? Not me. I was (am) hooked. This winter, fate led me to #Dahab, no less the unofficial capital of freediving. How I have fallen deeply in love. A warm space filled with an even warmer ocean-centric community, surrounded by desert and fuelled by delicious fresh juice. My idea of heaven. These clips are from the Blue Hole. I love the sensation of trusting my mind and body in the depths. It’s restorative and rewiring. The ease of #freediving has surprised me, I’ve been too afraid in the past. I’m training on land these days with co2 resistant #breathwork and strength training. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! 🎥 @hannahbinney & edit by me

golden hour with a golden boy 📸 @hannahbinney