Liquid Bodies, 2022

Performative Sculpture. Made and performed at Oxford Brookes University.

Plaster, Smoothness, Silence, Shadow, and Sun.

Where does the me start?

Where do we draw the line between the us and the other? 

How do we occupy space outside our physical bodies?

Liquid Bodies (2022) explores the idea of human existence within the vastness of space. 

It suggests that we are liquid bodies, fluid and adaptable, navigating through the ever-changing space around us. 

The concept of expanding and deflating bodies is something I first started thinking about while experiencing the size of personal space in open terrain.

In contrast to what we experience as us in crowded spaces, the self can reach as far as the horizon in unpopulated areas or as far as the borders of our shelter spaces in our homes*.

The performative body cast or adaptives is an attempt to capture the fleeting shape of this space in situations of comfort and solitude.  

Since this space is constantly shape shifting, the cast is a momentary impression that was already outdated by the time the plaster was fully cured. 

*Home describes a space of comfort and belonging. This can be physical shelters like houses, but can also describe people have a special connection with, communities that give us a sense of belonging, activities, routines, spaces in nature, and so on. Spaces of home are as diverse as the people who inhabit them.

' We are liquid bodies in seas of space,
expanding and deflating,
becoming what surrounds us,
and retreating from crowded spaces into shells,
that are almost the size of our fleshly bodies.'

- Liquid Bodies (2022)