Ballast II
Ballast II
Ballast II
Ballast II
Ballast II
Ballast II
Ballast II
Ballast II
Ballast II

Ballast II

2014

30 minute performance
FADO Performance Art Centre, Toronto, Canada
Curated by Shannon Cochrane
Supported by Arts Council England and The British Council
Photographs by Henry Chan

'My mouth is open, slightly. My lips are quivering, almost imperceptibly – not from the cold, but as though a nerve has been struck in the corners of my mouth. Sometimes, the smallest of affective spaces are the hardest to hold open. On each exhalation, a high-pitched sound is coasting on the crest of each breath.'

It is complicated, though. I do not feel that this sound is being made by the force of the lungs, breath or vocal chords. It is not of the breath, it is on the breath, it is distinctly separate from it. It is the sound that sweat would make. It is as though this sound has its own small body. If it were a body, it would be a fragile one – the shape of an ovary perhaps. I imagine the sound sitting, ovary-shaped, on top of the out-breath.'

Extract from PhD thesis, 'A Somatics of Affect: Articulating affective-kinaesthetic experience' (V.Gray, 2018)

Forces:amenorrhea; moving into and out of the organs and glands; ovaries; bladder; uterus; neuroendocrine system; digestive organs; mouth; metabolism; discordance; gastrointestinal tract; esophagus; dryness; stomach; large and small intestine; iliocecal valve; rectum; anus; liver; loss; rhythm; kidneys; bladder; infertility; gall bladder; cycle; sync; atemporal; oral rooting reflex; anal rooting reflex