Eye Napping

Jessie Gall

14–31 Oct 2020

Eye Napping is a series of fermented sound works, field recordings and text that follow a process of decomposition.

The Eyeball

Is a spherical body about 1” in diameter. It is suspended on the front of the orbital cavity and is maintained in position by semi-fluid fat around and behind it and by tension of the extrinsic ocular muscles. The eyeball rotates in the ORBITAL CAVITY, an irregular pyramidal boney structure.

Practice

Place your fingers lightly over your closed eyes, and feel their size and spherical quality. As a marble rotates when it moves, allow your eyes to rotate slightly in all directions (side-side, up-down, 4 diagonals, circling) guided gently by your fingers. Release an rigid holding place and allow your eyes to float within their semi-fluid support feel the embracing nurturing mobile quality of the fat.

Ref. Living Anatomy of Viso, Sensing Feeling and Action, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, drawing: Marghe Mills.

Offerings

find weight
in a place
still
hollow
i am (you are)
enough. to float
pale, lead, focus,
lock eyes
laugh
expose the breath
sit harder on the chest,
press into their sternum
release the trapped air
it’s been building up
relentlessly
lock eyes

laugh
into the skin
ripple the temples
undulate the spine
take their bones
back to the water
where they were made
draw a fluid boundary
in-between stages
and screens
bulk up
level in
work out
uncovet gaze
that was once worn
on this body

blur it
Fffffffffocus
soften
rods of sweat
hot pads
swelter, fester, rot
bitterness slumping under crumples
sting smear me under
lock eyes
step closer
reach
travel shed
reach, burst, swear
bury, reach
shed
unpack

loosen, flex
step over, lookunder
lift anchor hook point
lie down, lock eyes
break
barely look
blur it (again)
watch the breath
expose it

allow it
split partly
rest
relentlessly

close the lids
seal the frame
unlock
see the frame
blur it
unlock

Reference list:

Online, Exhibition

Overview

Eye Napping is a series of fermented sound works, field recordings and text that follow a process of decomposition.

Acknowledgment

This program takes place on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded - this land is stolen land. We pay respects to Wurundjeri Elders, past, present and emerging, to the Elders from other communities and to any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who might encounter or participate in the program.

Biographies

Jessie Gall is a queer, non-binary performer and visual artist working on unceeded Kulin nations. They work across multiple platforms using improvisation as a method of enquiry drawing from deep somatic states of feeling. Their work seeks to rupture, fragment and re-learn processes and values by composing collective and intimate experiences. Their recent projects include 'Eye Napping' for Grey Gardens online group exhibition and NTMCy' at TCB inc in 2019.