Body as a Site.
As a site, the body becomes responsive to its direct environment. It reacts to immediate conditions, and its’ movements, shapes and emotions are universally understood. We become aware of the familiarity of a body, the positions one makes to self-comfort, the way we hold ourselves. As a site, the body becomes the focus: we pay attention to the undulations of the skin, the folds of material against body, the negative spaces that no one else sees / touches / notices.
Exploring how we use the body to 'self - comfort'. How do we replace contact with others, especially amidst a time where we are self-isolating? In capturing myself in these images do these positions become instructional and performative? Are they understood by everyone as self comfort or just by me?
Taking this further, I also explored ideas of settling in a place that isn't home. An environment that can be harsh and unforgiving, how do you self comfort here? Does the change of location change the meaning of these images? What are these limits?
Look at your hand, now look at my hand,
For surely you see that mine is yours and yours is mine?
But look at your hand a little closer,
Those lines are not mine, nor are these folds.
And look at that spot right up there,
I have no spot on my hand anywhere.
So, what do you think about my hand and yours?
Perhaps not as same as we thought after all.
“The eye is the organ of distance and separation, whereas touch is the sense of nearness, intimacy and affection. The eye surveys, controls and investigates, whereas touch approaches and caresses.”
- Juhani Pallasmaa
Exploring the familiarity of a hand, but changing the tactility of it. No longer is this hand soft and fleshy, it is hard and immobile. But there a wrinkles, lines and folds that make it feel like a home.
