Study for One Hundred Twenty Breaths Documented
Ink on paper, 12″ x 20″
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
Collect
God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
This work is one of the more conceptually oriented in the book. The piece was created by writing a word–”believe” on one page and “breathe” on another–with each breath for 60 consecutive breaths. The words were written with a quill pen.
This is more challenging than it may fist appear: it’s actually hard to breathe in a steady, rhythmic way when you are conscious of every breath (you can see where I had to rush through a word at times). Also, the pen has to be dipped, and the tip wiped of excess ink, with every word. Plus, you have to keep count; oh, and try not to misspell the word. (Ever notice how the more times you write a word repeatedly the more it looks wrong?)I actually made a video of my writing but I didn’t realize that it was out of focus until I was done (the camera battery was on it’s last legs). sigh.
By the way, if you have the time and inclination, I would encourage you to try this little project for yourself–let me know what you think.
To me, this piece makes several connections: to spiritual disciplines, and liturgy; to Medieval monks and the copying of manuscripts; to breath prayer. I also don’t want to leave out the connection to the disciplinary writing of sentences I had to do when I got in trouble in third grade. (I still remember the actual sentence I had to write: ” I will conduct myself in an orderly manner at all times so as not to be a distraction to my class.”) All of these connections, along with the visual similarities of the words, lead me to ask certain questions about the nature of these two things. What about belief is voluntary and natural, what is forced, what is conditioned response? What is the role of grace in this? Can I “command” myself to believe, or for that matter can I command myself to breathe? When you, the viewer, see the pages, do you feel that I (or the book) am issuing a command to you?
This project (and the collect) makes me think of Mark 9:24, where the father of the boy with the unclean spirit exclaims “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
