(Be)longing
2019–ongoing
Site-specific interventions and 35mm slide film
Texts and publication
(Be)longing is an embodied exploration of communion with the land through the process of embedding a body in the landscape. The work stems from ecological concerns that expand to urgent socio-political issues, and proposes reflections on the questions of:
Site-specific interventions and 35mm slide film
Texts and publication
(Be)longing is an embodied exploration of communion with the land through the process of embedding a body in the landscape. The work stems from ecological concerns that expand to urgent socio-political issues, and proposes reflections on the questions of:
Where does the migrant body belong?
What does it mean to belong to more than one place?
How do we forge our relationship to the land we occupy?
And how do we forge belonging as an internal experience at every moment?
At the heart of the project exist three landscape interventions which took place at various locations across the UK in the Summer and Autumn of 2019 in locations outside of London (Postling; Kent, Fermyn Woods; Northamptonshire & The Warren; Kent) -generating decentralised and urgent discussions surrounding migration.
The first iteration of (Be)longing was funded by Arts Council England and produced by ]performance s p a c e [
The documentation of the interventions was done through 35mm slide film by Rowan Powell.
These performative interventions became the genesis of further installation, text and performance; which were exhibited at CUSTOM in Folkestone, as part of Something Held In The Mouth curated by Madeline Hodge in October 2019.
The first iteration of (Be)longing was funded by Arts Council England and produced by ]performance s p a c e [
The documentation of the interventions was done through 35mm slide film by Rowan Powell.
These performative interventions became the genesis of further installation, text and performance; which were exhibited at CUSTOM in Folkestone, as part of Something Held In The Mouth curated by Madeline Hodge in October 2019.
Text, published in 2019
A poetic document of embodied landscape interventions which examine the act of burial as a way to reflect on the migrant body. This is the final invited contribution in response to the Penetrate: Translate series, commissioned by Catalina Barroso-Luque and published by MAP Magazine. Available online at MAP Magazine and below. .
A poetic document of embodied landscape interventions which examine the act of burial as a way to reflect on the migrant body. This is the final invited contribution in response to the Penetrate: Translate series, commissioned by Catalina Barroso-Luque and published by MAP Magazine. Available online at MAP Magazine and below. .
The land does not reject
the land
they they the land
hold
The land holds all bodies
all bodies are held by the land
all bodies are claimed by the land
all bodies are claimed by the land
The land does not belong to bodies
bodies belong to land
The land does not have owners
The land is not a country
The land is not a nation
The land is not a nation
The land belongs to themselves
We speak to the land in mother tongue
mother tongue is not a language
it is a muscle
it is a muscle
Land and muscle bone body speak through gravity
magnetised
magnetised
land and body are one and the same
Even when the mind constructs
(obstructs
(obstructs
forgets
defaces)
muscle mother tongue prevails
The mind floats
the body is pulled by the earth
this is how we move
and how we hold stillness
the body is pulled by the earth
this is how we move
and how we hold stillness
how we live and how we die
When I think of the language that lives in my body
I feel a tight knot at the back of my mouth
Stiff sinew sinking towards my throat as it expands
My unruly tongue narrows my air passage:
To speak or to breathe?
A bind to loss
Choked in the airless effort of words
To dig a hole
—not
into another world—
into another world—
There’s no other
It is this
It is here
This is here
This
This
Here
To open a seam inside the present
It is this
It is here
This is here
This
This
Here
To open a seam inside the present
inside the space of time
within ancient shifting matter
within ancient shifting matter
To dig a hole as a way of saying I am here
This is here
This is now
This is here
This is now
inside time-space
inside the body of bodies
the body of land
the body of time space
the body of the past and of the future
inside the body of bodies
the body of land
the body of time space
the body of the past and of the future
Perhaps to belong means to belong to grief
and to be present in the now is to be present in grief
with grief
witnessing death
time death
land decay
erosion
land decay
erosion
to shape shift is to move through grief
to lose and to shed
in a wordless state
in a wordless state
Each time I curled I offered my pain as a jewel
to the land
Each time the land received it and opened up their pain
to me
Here, they said, take this glimpse, a mirror, an echo
(I am held in correspondence
I am held in reciprocity
I am given what I can handle)
How much death can one body handle before it’s claimed completely?
We were circling that edge, my friends and I
(the caretakers, the hole diggers, the stewards of sunrise)
Presence requires entering a great void of immersion
where layers of the self peel away
The hardest thing is to re-emerge
dispossessed
to the land
Each time the land received it and opened up their pain
to me
Here, they said, take this glimpse, a mirror, an echo
(I am held in correspondence
I am held in reciprocity
I am given what I can handle)
How much death can one body handle before it’s claimed completely?
We were circling that edge, my friends and I
(the caretakers, the hole diggers, the stewards of sunrise)
Presence requires entering a great void of immersion
where layers of the self peel away
The hardest thing is to re-emerge
dispossessed
—