WHEN BREATH LEAVES THE BODY is an active installation designed to engage participants in the manifestation of an ice and steel tower that will inevitably collapse. The piece rises over a period of approximately 60-90 minutes, and is best suited to an outdoor staging in 60+ degree weather. Indoor iterations employ an 8’ x 8’ basin to hold the 200+ pounds of ice (and resultant 25 gallons of water).
Materials: Clear Ice, Steel
Dimensions: 36″ x 36″ x 88″, encircled by a 20’ diameter boundary marked upon the floor. (Indoor Catch Basin: 8′ x 8′, wood, plastic sheeting, 36″ x 36″ plywood planchette)
Some notes: The spiraling “tower” is both a means to an end, and an end unto itself, however ephemeral; an abstract illustration providing focus for participants/viewers, and “storing the energy” of the manifestation. The dichotomic components of warm steel and cold ice are important to the dynamics that enable the tower’s rise, and contribute to its eventual fall. All viewers are welcome to participate in the piece however they so choose, and all eventually became participants in this staging.
Third Manifestation Viewer/Participants: Kaia, Oleksandra Chuprina (Documentarian), Juan Baños, Jacob Boglio, Asya Dubrovina, Austin McCann, Laleh Motlagh & Honey
(Images courtesy of Oleksandra Chuprina; select images courtesy the artist)
