Moving-image, 08:36.
Despite the commonplace discussion of emotions having a physical effect on the body, such as nerves causing “butterflies” and a racing heart, or stress causing headaches and muscle tension, when considering more complex emotions and experiences, the links between the mind and the body are often neglected and departments of mental and physical health rarely have opportunity to confer.
Untitled (no reason) explores the psychosomatic experience of emotion and the holding of trauma in the body. Combining recorded performance, archival materials and text, the work brings together visceral elements, fragmentary images and highly constructed material. The sound work, created by musician Canaan Balsam, leads the viewer through light and depth as well as moments of uncertainty and ambivalence. Archival material disintegrates and impresses upon the layered images, highlighting the obscuration and repetition of memory. The theme of water unites the disparate elements of the work, connoting simultaneously both birth and death, clarity and opacity, calm and turmoil.
cosima c cobley carr 