Heather B. Swann: I LET MY BODY FALL INTO A RHYTHM

I LET MY BODY FALL INTO A RHYTHM developed artist Heather B. Swann’s idea of the ‘performance tool’: a sculptural object activated by a human body.

The work was born from a moment during a residency in Japan when she overheard the ‘chink – chink’ of an unseen stonemason carving a tombstone in a cemetery. Swann experienced an unsettling, surreal sensation of unbound sound, and in that moment she understood the beautiful melancholy expressed in the Japanese concept of mono no aware – the pathos of things.

The regular intervals of breathing, the pulse of blood, the movement of tides are encoded in consciousness. We drum our fingers or click our tongues when searching for a word or an idea. We tap our feet with impatience. We hum tunelessly when we are contented or concentrating. Then there is work. We cut. We sweep. We sew. We fold. We hammer. We rub and pat and shape … In the pursuit of these tasks the body is enlivened, possessed by patterns of motion: swinging, swaying, rocking, pacing … At an abstract extremity, such movements are both sites and sources for the expansion of consciousness. They create a choreography for the nervous system.

In its combination of art installation and live performance, I LET MY BODY FALL INTO A RHYTHM explored the idea that repeated, rhythmical actions – particularly those of physical and skilled labour – create powerful emotional states.

Performance Schedule:

Thursday 22 November
2–5 pm Anna Kuroda

Friday 23 November
2–5 pm Anna Kuroda

Saturday 24 November
2–5 pm Anna Kuroda
3–5 pm Philip Adams

Sunday 25 November
1–2 pm Nell
2–5 pm Anna Kuroda