Breath

Description:

This single-channel video by Margaret Dragu explores the abstract and painterly qualities of breath, focusing particularly on the workings of the diaphragm. The fifteen-minute video meditatively captures the flow of breath through the body, with close-ups of nude torsos and Kate Craig’s cats, Oola and Spoola, lounging together on swaths of emerald silk.

The video opens and closes with documentation of Alan Storey’s architectural installation Machine for Bad Weather (1985), which features a water wheel and wind gauge on the exterior of the Western Front. The cyclical motion of Storey’s fixtures, partially driven by the wind, poetically echoes the flow of breath through flesh and fur.

Breath features music by Hank Bull. The video was produced while Dragu was in residence at Western Front.

Video documentation is available upon request.