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A residency in the crypt space at St Mary in the Castle, collaborating with Nicole Zaaroura. Chordae Tendineae (heart strings) is a collaborative, process led work, developed during a month long residency.
A lattice structure suspended either side of the heart, the lungs receive the warmed air drawn through the mouth. The cavity of the chest and the four chambers of the heart offer parallels to the structure of the crypt space within St Mary’s. Connections between mind and body, encountering the qualities of the spirit and structure of the space have resonated and informed the development of this work. Salt as a transient material, associated with purification rituals, loss and residue, simultaneously dissolving and drawing out, denotes the movement of the piece, like the patterning of warm breath on glass. Intricate patterns of the iron air vents that linked the space above to the space below, have been placed, indicating the passage of the breath, the rise and fall, and the journey of the air through the space. The fragility of the transitions between life and death, the physical and the meditative, have cast the lines of exploration throughout the collaboration and the space.
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The collaboration has been a key part of this residency, sometimes operating over 600 km, in a virtual and liminal space. Through 147 e-mails, 30 text messages and 4 meetings, the work has developed through a relational practice between the two artists and those spaces/places inhabited. The main component of the body after cremation is salt. During this month Louise and Nicole have taken 714,240 breaths each.
Louise Kenward & Nicole Zaaroura