holding Nut’s position

2021

clay-sculpture, approx. 15 x 20 x 30 cm, re-visualising a performance

Feet and hands to the ground, rest of the body up in the air. 

I could hold this position for 8 minutes, realising how the feeling for my body changed 

until I finally had to collapse. The sculpture visualises the interoceptive experience, 

drawing attention to the perception of corporal volumes.

The experience and the resulting physical re-thinking through this posture

had a particular influence on the further work on exhaustion, because it

made me reflect on the prehistoric Venus figures. This led to the question of

who even claims that the depicted bodies are fertility goddesses

(i.e. something superior to the human/feminine) and not perhaps rather

the visualisation of, for example, period cramps or changes in a pregnant state.

In this context I particularly recommend Upper Paleolithic Venus Figurines and

Interpretations of Prehistoric Gender Representations by Kaylea R. Vandewettering.