Sensory Suspensions

MEMORY OF A LONG TIME AGO  Vermont Studio Center, 2016

Like a circle, here. Suspended, finally.

Close-whoa, Strength, curiosity (are) taken care of. Flow, form, two, touch. Offering easy surrender, no hesitation (in a) frozen moment (through) suspended time. Upside down, balance beams. Pausing life, only existing. Beads of white light, nano fireworks. Absolute light. Leaning on someone else. Close eyes & focus on sense. Hammock. Cocoon. Womb. Trust. Breath. Feel the arch of my back, as I inhale, visibly rising. Spinning clouds. 

Mother. Born. Memory of a Long Time Ago.

Safe cover, a steel ball in space, floating. Simultaneous ground and freedom. Swaddled, sure of existence. As I am right now, without doing or saying. 

In these moments, time expands. Fuzzy edges, fluid, free. We let the souls out today.

Beneath each image or object rests a practice of transference that begins with the artist/maker, and is received by the viewer or utilized by the receiver. The object is proof of the suture between mind and breath, breath and body, body and matter, and matter and body. I seek to unearth these currents of transference towards palpable, tangible, and inclusive gestures, direct between artist and viewer, and ultimately, viewer and their environment. A transmission of sorts, if not, a neural pathway remembered or born. My aim is to bond with the viewer, and to engage them in a moment of sensory suspension that might deepen their attention, and slow compulsions of mind.

Slowing the compulsions of mind. One way to enact this is to turn the body upside down, to turn perspective undeniably 180 degrees. Not to imagine it, but to feel it. Another is to touch, to lose the frontal sensory (sight), and trust skillful and therapeutic touch, intentionally. In a space where bodies rarely connect, where activity of mind is what connects us– often in frenetic and aspirational manners, touch is an methodology of knowing that has always been ours.

BUILDING LANGUAGE

Each participant- 20 in total for the VSC experiment – were asked to offer words and intuitive images or diagrams to illustrate their experience. As Sensory Suspensions is a living project with no conclusion, there will be multiple ways in which these dialogs will continue. Here are some of the language points, using the words of the participants, listed and punctuated. A prose. (above)

Deep gratitude to Elisa Insua and Jami Porter Lara for their documentation support, and to the residents of VSC for their willingness to contribute their bodies and release their minds.