~ See feelingly ~
In King Lear, Shakespeare captures so well the perceptions we have that go beyond what our eyes can see, with the expression, to see it feelingly. The soft gaze of our skin emerges in the vast extension of our sensibility to touch, temperature, and the entirety of the body’s enclosure, in its sense of gravity, balance and movement.
Our skin is a permeable border, whose sensory limits are somehow diffuse. We can feel the warmth of water, and be uncertain about where water ends and we begin; feel emotions in our bodies, without précising their location fully. My mind and body are easily engaged, and present, when floating on water. What is not there easily disappears. Buoyancy is one of my favourite physical experiences: staying on the edge between two elements, water and air. Floating on warm, Mediterranean waters I feel weightless; there’s a sense of joy, lightness, softness and tranquillity. Floating feels like a warm embrace from the sea; there’s an unspeakable tenderness to it, as it calls for surrender, for letting go. That contact with nature, that immersion, brings the best of my own nature.
And there are the sensations of water on skin; the physical zest of its softness and texture, the warmth and cold of its currents in constant movement, and the gentle rhythm of its flow. The sound of water in the body, and of the body in the water, in the water, and, perhaps, of waves breaking ashore. The smell of the sea, when and if it arises, and its indistinguishable salty flavour. All adds to a sensation of peace and quietness, in which the constant fluidity of sensations, feelings and thoughts is both pleasant and accessible.
Bodies of Water evokes this enjoyment, and it is an exploration into the sensory experiences of the skin and the associated emotions, and feelings, when floating on water. Of rest, and delight. Of identity, touch, and body representation. As it’s acronym, it holds the movement of bowing the mind to the wisdom of the body. We can only see if we feel.
Comments