About the Work

Juxtaposition forms the foundation for the formal and emotional relationships between materials and the choreographed arrangement of objects. This project concerns emotional breathing spaces – or the lack of them. What unfolds in the surrounding space is a fragmented externalization of the figure’s emotional reality, where the Other is experienced as outside oneself rather than within. In this way, the Other becomes a kind of roadmap, carrying both projection and desire, pointing toward the possibility of awareness.

The figure itself is majestic and faceless, suspended in a straightjacket dress that hovers like a wedding gown – a presence at once solemn and constrained. Around it, adjoining structures echo this tension: cube-shaped forms in solid concrete float upon cylinder-shaped perspex rings; quadrant frames are cut open, through which raw sheep’s wool, spiders, and all that once lived from the sheep spill downward like gashes or waterfalls. The wall behind holds an impenetrable yellow square painted in dense gloss household paint, creeping slightly around the corner to invite a sense of immersion.

Breathing spaces here are dense, congested, and exploited. The figure appears sealed off, existing only within itself, and this stalled existence reverberates outward, mirrored in the density and overflow of materials. A fragile balance is maintained, as if the viewer were suspended inside a still image taken from a moving camera.

©️ Camilla Howalt