VISUALIZING THE INVISIBLE; A Journey Into Silence

VISUALIZING THE INVISIBLE: A Journey Into Silence FIONA MOREHOUSE TAL WALDMAN

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Project Overview.

“VISUALIZING THE INVISIBLE; A Journey Into Silence” is the culmination of our extensive research on the perception of silence. Using our body as a vessel and silence as our stimulus and aspiration, we are two women artists, based in Paris France and Vermont US, giving voice to the invisible currants that shape our lives.

The goal of our dialogue is to visualize the invisible. Deepening observation and experimenting with self-awareness, we document our journey into silence through this experimental, transnational collaboration.

We ask the questions.

How do we engage an open dialogue from a distance?

How can invisible processes be explored and communicated?

How do we relate to the unknown? To a change in perception?

How does a committed inner study impact art making? What is the human nature relationship?

TAL WALDMAN

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As Above

Our Story..

We met serendipitously, at an art exhibition in Paris, just before the pandemic in which we were introduced to one another because we both had paintings with the same names- As Above, So Below. That night we would start a conversation about our shared interest in art and mindfulness that continues today.

‘Visualizing the Invisible’ is a multi-layered process integrating multimedia visual art studies, meditation practices, automatic drawings, written testimonials and data visualization. Adhering to the principles of ‘slow art’, we honor present awareness and its impact our process and our collaboration.

So Below.

Coinciding with the current global context of COVID-19, our geographically distanced dialogue underlines our call for a change in how we communicate and connect, working toward developing a sense of ‘common ground’ between different viewpoints, backgrounds, and life experience.

Cultivating an attitude of trust and transparency, the resonance between our work continues to grow through weekly virtual meetings, handwritten letters, email and whatsapp conversations, through shared stories, resources, and inspiration.

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CHAPTER:1 GENIUS LOCI CHAPTER 3 : SACRED SYMBOLS CHAPTER 5 : COLOURS VIBRATORY RELATIONSHIP CHAPTER 7 : INTO FORM CHAPTER 9 : TREES & LIGHT CHAPTER 11 : DRAWING LIGHT CHAPTER 13 : BREATH LANDSCAPES CHAPTER 15, INTERCONNECTEDNESS CHAPTER 17: SILENCE

TAL WALDMAN TAL WALDMAN

FIONA MOREHOUSE CHAPTER 2: TAP ROOT CHAPTER 4: EXPOSED CHAPTER 6: ALCHEMY

Our Research.

In a collection of 18 alternating chapters, we move in tandem through the arch of a year long journey, ‘Visualizing The Invisible; from a distance. Inspired by their inner work, photographs, videos, poems, personal insights, automatic drawings, and shared stories, each chapter has a distinct personality of its own.

CHAPTER 8: INNER COMPASS CHAPTER 10: INNER VOICE CHAPTER 12: DEEP LISTENING CHAPTER 14: PRESENCE CHAPTER 16: CONVERGENCE CHAPTER 18: PRESENCE

FIONA MOREHOUSE TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 1: GENIUS LOCI

Searching for the invisible essence of the mountains, the genius loci, Tal practices repetitive drawings of the same situations while exercising mindful observation.

Chapter 7: INTO FORM

Tal returns to line and form as a mindful experience. Inspired by the writing of Wassily Kandinsky, she then explores geometrical and organic compositions

Chapter 13: BREATH LANDSCAPES

Mapping a BREATH LANDSCAPE is a practice of Prana yoga on paper that Tal chooses to map by drawing, embroidering and filming. The works are inspired by a series of abstract fragmented photos taken in Bretagne after months of confinement.

CHAPTER 2 : TAP ROOT Through immersive nature studies, Fiona discovers a passageway between worlds.

Chapter 8: INNER COMPASS

Fiona explores the nature of the planet as manifested in the body. Here, the 5 elements- earth, air, fire, water, and space create a unifying foundation between all living things.

Chapter 14: PRESENCE

In the space between the inhale and exhale, Fiona is exploring Presence as stillness and the birthplace of creativity.

Chapter 3: SACRED SYMBOLS Entering the confinement due to the Covid19 pandemic, Tal senses the need to structure the research by examining common qualities of art making and inner work; turning to sacred symbols.

Chapter 9: TREES & LIGHT

Tal explores the magic of Komorebi and the relationship with trees as spiritual symbolism. She explores the ‘Wood Wide Web’ and raises questions about our own interconnectivity.

Chapter 15: INTERCONNECTION

Body-Mind-Spirit being an ongoing thread, Tal explores her own body in the body of nature. In this chapter INTERCONNECTEDNESS is explored through the understanding of Oneness and Spiritual Ecology.

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Chapter 4: EXPOSED

Through uprooted walls of fallen trees, Fiona discovers a portal and the inside is turned out.

Chapter 5: COLORS VIBRATORY RELATIONSHIP

In this chapter Tal concentrates only on simultaneous contrast between pairs of colours, examining their vibratory relationship and their interaction to each other and her own feelings.

Chapter 10: INNER VOICE

Chapter 11: DRAWING LIGHT

Exploring the body as a microcosm of the universe, Fiona delves into the relationship between the communication networks within the human body and earth body.

Inspired by Komorebi light, Tal explores light’s quantum duality as both particle and energy, trailing the duality of eternal and inner light in parallel to the duality in our existence.

Chapter 16: CONVERGENCE

Chapter 17: SILENCE

Fiona embraces the idea that intersectionality creates interconnection. The human body is not a part of nature but rather both exist simultaneously within one another.

Tal explores different kinds of silence and their visual qualities. She closes a year cycle in the mountains of the south of France where she began, taking photos and painting her own experiences of SILENCE.

Chapter 6: ALCHEMY

Fiona reconnects with the theme of ‘As Above, So Below’ and an interest in Alchemy is reignited through a discovery of the 3 essentials of the universe.

Chapter 12: DEEP LISTENING

Fiona explores the TREE as AXIS MUNDI- a line or stem through the earth’s center connecting its surface to the underworld and the heavens and around which the universe revolves.

Chapter 18: EMERGENCE

Emerging from a year studying the inner landscape of trees as a deeper understanding of the inner landscape of the human experience, Fiona asks the questions - How can she stay rooted in both the above and the below?

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Our Process.

An additional layer of research, we also experiment with automatic drawing and data-visualization of a variety of ‘Present Awareness’ practices.

Chapter 21 + 22: DATA VISUALIZATION

FIONA MOREHOUSE

Chapter 19 + 20: AUTOMATIC DRAWING TAL WALDMAN

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OUR STORY IN SHORT

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Chapter 1: GENIUS LOCI Starting in the mountains of the south of France Tal opens her day with a routine of meditation and a walk. She is inspired to take photos of ‘landscape – openings’, searching for both stillness and movement to be registered in the photos. Back in her Paris home studio, Tal practices repetitive drawings of the same situations, sometimes a few a day while exploring a liberation from the form, searching for the invisible essence of the mountains, the genius loci, In this journey Tal cultivate a non result attitude and open herself to different influences, there is no right and wrong. Sometimes the peaceful quality of the landscape is aligned with the stillness of her state and enlarges it, while sometimes her inner turbulent state is registered in the drawing especially as entering confinement.

TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 2: TAP ROOT Here, in the green mountains of Vermont, Fiona begins taking daily walks through the woods where she too is drawn into OPENINGS IN THE LANDSCAPE. She begin to take photographs to capture the moments in which she experience a particular resonance or aliveness and then she paint it, twice, imagining the first impression is from an exterior view and the second painting, a quicker freer ‘inner impression’.

FIONA MOREHOUSE

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TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 3 - Sacred Symbols - Tal Waldman Chapter 3: SACRED SYMBOLS Entering the tragic period of confinement due to the Covid19 pandemic, Tal senses the need to structure the research by examining common qualities of art making and inner work; turning to sacred symbols.

Believing a symbol is not just an image but a door to an inner world through which the potential to access a sacred inner space is permitted, Tal feels a call to work on observation, light, intermediate state, prayer, and creation, inspired by Hilma af klint work.

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Chapter 4: EXPOSED Fiona discovers openings in trees as passageways between worlds. In Rabbit Hole, she imagines herself entering the opening into the unknown space within.

FIONA MOREHOUSE

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Chapter 5: SACRED SYMBOLS It is said that deep understanding comes from climbing up the ‘tree of life' (chapter 3), Tal decides to climb the tree through the Spheres attributed colours. In this chapter Tal put aside the form and mental consideration, to concentrate only on simultaneous contrast between pairs of colours, examining their vibratory relationship and the interaction to each other and her own feelings.

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TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 4: ALCHEMY Sitting, in the dark expansive space of the interior landscape of the tree, Fiona is introduced to the alchemical idea of the ‘3 essentials of the philosophy of the universe’ - Sulfur, Salt, and Mercury as the original elements that all life is created from. While Tal is investigating the vibratory relationship of color in space, Fiona is exploring the relationship of the primary colors through the ayurvedic, astrological, and scientific qualities of the 3 essentials- sulfur, salt, and mercury.

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FIONA MOREHOUSE

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Chapter 7: INTO FORM Tal finds the need to return to a line and a form as a mindful experience.

Starting by introducing form into colour, inspired by the writing of Wassily Kandinsky, she explores geometrical and organic compositions and introduces her ongoing investigation of Automatic and Mindful Drawing.

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TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 8 : INNER COMPASS Fiona expands her understanding of the elements and learn more about the nature of the planet as manifested in the body. From the macro to the micro, the 5 elementsearth, air, fire, water, and space create a unifying foundation between all living things. In this chapter, Fiona is reminded that every living being shares the same fundamental design.

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NA MOREHOUSE

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TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 9 : TREES AND LIGHT After sharing an unusual experience of ‘incarnated light’, following meditation in her garden, Tal explores the magic of Komorebi (japanese term describing the sunshine filtering through the leaves of trees). She reveals the relationship with trees as a spiritual symbolism and introduces trees interconnectivity and communication system (Wood Wide Web) while raising questions regarding our own interconnectivity.

In this chapter Tal starts her way back from the cosmic into the earthly material.

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Chapter 12: INNER VOICE Exploring the human body earth body connection Fiona sinks underground, into the earth. In this chapter she delve into the interdependent networks of communication happening underland and inside the human body. Here she begin to make correlations between the mycorrhizal networks and the fascial body and the vagus nerve as similarly functioning communication systems.

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TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 11: LIGHT DRAWING Inspired by Komorebi light, Tal explores light’s quantum duality as both particle and energy, trailing the duality of eternal and inner light in parallel to the duality in our human existence. Tal touches on different qualities and traditions related to light as well as practical experimentation with light drawing and light as a healing practice.

She builds an installation, as the sunlight shines through it she captures the light drawing on the paper. A composition which changes as the sun light alters.

She constantly transforms the installation to accommodate the alterations in light.

The installation itself is of no importance to her, only the LIGHT COMPOSITION REVEALED which she films and photo-paints.

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Chapter 12: DEEP TIME Exploring the breath as a channel into the reciprocal relationship between humans and trees, Fiona is inspired by the books, ‘Breath’ by James Nestor and ‘Underland” by David McFarlane. She delve deeper into the interconnected root systems and mycorrhizal networks,making a connection between the above and below through the journey of the inhale and exhale as it moves through the body.

FIONA MOREHOUSE

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Chapter 13: BREATH LANDSCAPES An ultimate passage from the universe to her own body through breath exploration as an anchor to inner work. Tal decides to experiment and translate each breath into a gesture on paper, each inhalation a line; each exhalation a line. Tal practices nada yoga daily, but here she is Mapping her own BREATH LANDSCAPE on paper, practicing Prana yoga on paper, by drawing, embroidering and filming. The works are inspired by a series of abstract fragmented photos taken in Bretagne after months of confinement, a week that was literally a fresh BREATH to her.

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Chapter 14: Presence Fiona visualizes Presence as the space between the inhale and exhale. In this liminal space, presence is the opening into the mystery of life and creation.

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TAL WALDMAN 38

Chapter 15: INTERCONNECTEDNESS Body-Mind-Spirit being an ongoing thread, Tal explores her own body in the body of nature. In this chapter INTERCONNECTEDNESS is explored through the understanding of Oneness and Spiritual Ecology.

Investigating her place in the natural world, seeking to recognize the secret interdependence of different organic lives, picturing them as one living organism.

While exploring eco-spirituality texts, Tal is inspired by poetry of Fernando Pessoa .

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Chapter 16: CONVERGENCE

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Human and nature converge into one body.

The human body is not a part of nature but rather both exist simultaneously within one another. Rather than embracing the idea that everything is a part of everything else, Fiona embraces the idea that intersectionality creates interconnection.

In this way, All Is One. 41

Chapter 17: SILENCE It is the end of year cycle in this chapter Tal explores SILENCE in life and in the arts. She explores the different kinds of silence and their visual qualities. She discovers the different and sometimes contradictory perceptions to silence, interior and exterior. With the writings of Fernando Pessoa , Susan Sontag, Sarah Maitland and others, she closes a year cycle in the mountains of the south of France where she began, taking photos and painting her own experiences of SILENCE. She finishes this chapter in these words ”Closing a year of experimentation, a ‘Journey into silence’, exploring how to ‘Visualize the invisible’, the paradox remains. Testifying about silence is still not experiencing it, and communicating the invisible is yet a challenge. A challenge not only for the frail nature of Silence but also due to the need of keeping its beauty sacred and pure. A challenge I am willing to continue and take being more immune to the uneasiness facing the unknown.”

TAL WALDMAN

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CHAPTER 18: EMERGENCE Fiona feels herself emerging from a year long study of the inner landscape of trees as a deeper understanding of the inner landscape of her experience of the human body. She returns to an interest in photographing openings in trees. While in the beginning of the journey, it was from the outside out, she is now taking photos from the inside out.

She is finding herself re-emerging back into her humanness, asking the questions “How can I remain permeable? How can I stay in the flow of synchronicity? How can I maintain an intimate relationship with both the above and the below? “

FIONA MOREHOUSE

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TOOLS & METHODS

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Chapter 19: AUTOMATIC DRAWING AS MINDFUL PRACTICE

Automatic Drawing is « a method of art-making developed by the surrealists in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process as a means of expressing the subconscious ». The idea is to put pen to paper and follow the process of subconscious mark making. I have been applying AD methods in past project, here, I’m exploring the possibilities of using Automatic drawing as a Mindful practice.

Through breath, mantra, prayer, movement or sound, different mindfulness practices focus the sensation on the body and hence keeps the mind occupied from scattering between thoughts, emotions and associations. A similar process appears to happen in Automatic drawing, which therefore allows the practice of self-observation through drawing. Neutralizing the scattered mind, as well as the need to perform results automatic drawing reduces self-criticism and allows freedom of both the mind and the hand.

I decide to put in practice the experiment through a progression of documented short exercises.

I work intuitively, not aiming for a specific result other than consciously following the exercise given condition, which is, staying accounted to the experience and its documentation. Usually I focus on a particular body position, sensation of weight, breathing, angle of vision, open or closed eyes, in movement or stillness. My main effort is dividing my attention between drawing and simultaneously directing my attention to my body.

My main effort is dividing my attention between drawing and simultaneously directing my attention to my body.

This practice requires the division of my attention between inward and out, between my presence in my body and my drawing itself. A conscious attention means something that is between two states, it is an energy that connects me both inside and outside in parallel. Hence, I practice this separation, mobilizing my attention into my body while exercising drawings. I need to free my drawing from thinking, invite the gestures and accept obtaining no results. I also need to allow my body to relax so that the energy will not leave, I cannot force it, I can only invite and observe.

These exercises require a dense effort of attention and observation and seem to have the possibility to associate a presence with my hand and my drawing.

Between Mai 2020 and March 2021 I have documented dozens of mindful drawings, in later dates I have started practicing also open eyes drawings and observational sketches while maintaining body mind attention.

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June 2020 – I practice a 3 min closed eyes exercise. My attention is divided between circulating my attention on my body while drawing intuitively.

June 2020 – I practice a 3 min opened eyes exercise. My attention is divided between an intuitive sketch and a circular attention on my arm-my right leg- my left leg- my left arm.

sept 2020 – I practice a 5min closed eyes exercise. My attention is divided between a sensitive listening to a raga training and the translation of its progression on the paper, while observing my breath.

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FIONA MOREHOUSE

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I approach mindful drawing as an inner body meditation. ‘Blind drawings’ initiate the kind of ‘Present Awareness’ I want to embody as I approach each visual study. The focus is on giving space for the invisible forces within to engage a visual conversation from the inside out. I sit in the same chair, at the same table, facing the same direction- every time…and yet.

Every drawing I make is totally unique, totally it’s own. Starting in Chapter 4: Inner Compass, I not only began my art practice with a blind drawing, but I begin completing the visual studies by overlaying a blind drawing as a final gesture. In this way, I am allowing the invisible ‘inner voice’ to both open and close each visual study. Allowing each piece to be altered with the final gesture of a blind drawing allows me to stay present and unattached to any particular outcome. I completely trust the process, and lean into this alternative way of ‘Visualizing The Invisible’. I also experimented with a few blind paintings. The process of ‘letting go’ here was significantly more challenging but I kept trusting the idea that, ‘If you get out of the way, the art will make itself.’

Chapter 20: MINDFUL DRAWING

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Chapter 19: DATA VISUALIZATION Believing that “Know thyself” is an essential key to inner study and art making, we challenge ourselves to be aware and document different aspects of our daily life, such as, art making, meditation, our senses or behavior patterns. We observed our experience, discerned and documented the data visually, a way we believe, could enhance in itself our awareness as each moment recorded is a reminder for more awareness.

This is my EMOTIONS WEEK AWARENESS I monitor my emotional awareness throughout a week where I was started being sick with Covid, unfortunately got worse by the day for almost a month. Each color represents a different state throughout the day. Progressing by day, I grow from bottom left (19 o’clock) in the direction of the watch, being aware of my constant emotional reaction.

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This is my SMELL WEEK AWARENESS I monitor my awareness to smells throughout a week. I try to recall any smell throughout the day indoor or outdoor. Each color represents a specific smell, each round represent a day. Starting left down (19 o’clock) and growing in the direction of the watch.

TAL WALDMAN

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Chapter 22: DATA VISUALIZATION After a year of committing to integrating regular meditation practice into my daily routine, I document 4 different ‘Present Awareness’ practices- body scanning, energy mapping, mindful walking, and mindful awareness in daily life.

I work with ENERGY MAPPING for 21 days. I note what chakra (if any) feels open. I note any colors that I experience in that chakra.Documenting this practice over time, I was able to recognize what energy centers in my body are constantly open and which chakras are consistently blocked.

FIONA MOREHOUSE

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MEDITATIVE WALKING- I orient my experience to a compass with each direction symbolizing a particular set of qualities. Initially my attention is focused on the breathe and the inner body and then it opens to encompass the external environment. Here, the boundaries between inside and outside are fluid and permeable.

PRESENT AWARENESS- I create a map based on moments that I naturally experience a state of present awareness. In my notes, I document what time it was, how long it lasted, and where I was when it happened. I was surprised to see how few moments throughout my day I am in a state of total ‘present awareness’.

BODY SCANNING- I experiment for 21 days, documenting sensations in the body during my morning meditation practice. Some days, I feel little to nothing, while other days, I feel a range of sensations. I moved from a single contour line drawing of a body map to an ‘inner compass’ where I map the range of sensations, rotating in a circle, from the beginning to end.

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EXAMPLES OF RESONANCE IN OUR WORK

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RESONANCE Cultivating an attitude of trust and transparency, our distanced collaboration continues to find connection through an attitude of spaciousness through both our individual and shared process.

Through weekly virtual meetings, handwritten letters, and through email and whatsapp conversations, we have built our partnership and friendship through over a year long relationship of sharing stories, resources, insights, and inspiration.

FIONA MOREHOUSE

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Together, we are drawn into the invisibile currents of the liminal space.

TAL WALDMAN

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TAL WALDMAN

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A sense of Interconnection is strengthened through our shared interest in the human/ earth connection.

FIONA MOREHOUSE

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TAL WALDMAN

Tal Waldman is an polymorphic artist based in Paris France. “ I am a artist based in Paris who investigates inner landscapes through introspection. Exploring themes such as collective memory, identity, perception and mindfulness and nature, using drawing, painting, photography, installation and sculpting.

Beginning with ideas and mental images, my creative process is a mixture of back and forth between those ideas and the action of creation itself. Putting an emphasis on the material, I open myself to the influence of the new qualities and emotions that emerge from it. It is why I love working on various mediums and supports and in series, through which I gain freedom and authenticity. While cultivating an attitude of trust in the process, I am less concerned with the reproduction imagined in my mind and I am more sensitive to the natural expression of the medium and my interaction with it.”

www.talwaldman.com

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Fiona Morehouse is an artist living and working in Putney, Vermont in the USA. “Excavating layers of human earth connection, I paint landscapes from the inside out. Interested in visualizing the invisible, I work with oils on canvas and gouache on paper to emphasize the reciprocal nature of the internal and external, the micro and macro. Trusting that what is perceived from the outside is equally influenced by what lies within, I continue to find inspiration from the exterior landscape as a way to better understand the inner landscape of my human experience.

Seeking to deconstruct a mechanistic worldview and aligning with a reality consisting of networked relationships and living systems, I continue to be intrigued by the human nature connection.”

www.fionamorehouse.com

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Our online un-edited work archive and social media

www.in2visible.com and @in2visible makes our ongoing experimentation open to engagement in alternating chapters A way of working with art that, we believe, has value in shaping both visual art and human connection.

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