Bursa

3 hour performance
Tetley Center for Contemporary Art, Leeds, UK
Photographs by Nathan Walker
Panel sculpture: Jessica Warboys
Inflatable sculpture: Claire Ashley

'The omental bursa is a space or cavity [created by rotation of the digestive tube during fetal life] behind the stomach, in front of the pancreas and under the liver. "Bursa" means a space.

So if you lift up the lesser omentum [a peritoneal layer between the stomach and the liver], the omental bursa space is behind it. In the back is the epiploic foramen, a hole that connects the omental bursa to the greater peritoneal sac, which is where most of the organs are located.

What I found when I breathed into this layer, was that I didn't breathe normally ...'

Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, 'The Place of Space: Discovering the Omental Bursa' in 'Sensing, Feeling and Action' (2009)

Forces: omental bursa; cavities; silence; greater peritoneal sac; lungs; hunger; diaphragm; deep listening; paranoia; earplugs; non-sonorous resonance; vibration; tinnitus; hyperacusis; pockets; inflamation; sound proofing; canals; echo; breath; air; inflation; deflation; opening; closing; hollows; folding