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THE STATE OF BREATH
July 11th – 20th
The State of Breath is an ongoing collaborative project in site-specific performance process. The first phase of the project took place at SNAC in the summer of 2002, bringing together five performance artists with established solo practices: Marilyn Arsem, Paul Couillard, Edward Johnson, Louise Liliefeldt, and Alastair MacLennan.
The artistic process -- how an artist's ideas are generated, developed and manifested -- is often mysterious and difficult to talk about, even among colleagues. Critical thinking and writing about process is particularly lacking in the genre of performance art. The State of Breath was developed as an experimental model for performance artists to communicate and share work in a group context, as well as to deepen critical engagement with the medium.
For the first phase of the project, the artists were asked to create works that responded to the St. Norbert site and used their colleagues' bodies and impulses as part of the material of the performance. Entering each other's work and helping to create each other's images was used as a vehicle for beginning the artists' dialogue -- to gain a deeper perspective on both their own work and that of their colleagues.
To provide a tangible focus, "The State of Breath" was proposed by curator Paul Couillard as a general theme for the works.
Our bodies are the way we know the world. They are both the vessels of our being and the tool we use to express ourselves. The State of Breath invited the artists to approach the elements of time, space and presence through a consideration of one of our bodies' most basic and immediate necessities -- breath.
Breathing is an essential function of living. Without oxygen, our bodies would die within minutes. As one of the few body processes that can function autonomously or be consciously controlled, breathing is also at the center of our awareness. Breath is both rhythm and measure, a fundamental unit of life itself. To say that we are in the state of breath is to say that we are alive. But the word 'state' has several potential definitions: it can refer to a condition or aspect of being (encompassing the physical, emotional and spiritual); or it can refer to a recognized unit of government (encompassing the political and social). The overlapping connotations suggested by the condition of being and the sovereignty of body processes are a particularly fertile territory for exploring difference and seeking common ground in what are undeniably challenging and troubling times.
The material here documents some of the process and outcomes of this first phase of the project. Throughout 2003, the artists will engage in the second phase of the project, an electronic dialogue about performance process moderated by performance artist Shawna Dempsey. A third phase of the project, scheduled for January 2004, will bring the artists back together for a second residency at St. Norbert, with the goal of using our research to develop a performance process workbook. Artist, writer and professor Sheila Butler has agreed to participate in this phase as an editor.
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