Ex-halations by Linda Fleming

Where do the mundane and the multiverse intersect? How might we, as artist Linda Flemming asks, “give form to the intangible?” What is the relationship between sensation and understanding? What is the physicality of space? How might multiple realities simultaneously exist? Is the past truly in the past? Notice the presence of time’s influence on the sculpture in the form of rust. How does the everyday-ness of the bed affect your experience of the other figure and visa versa?

Movement: Imagine a halation – a bright ring that surrounds – around you. Inspired by the patterns of the sculpture, fill the area of your forcefield with curving spirals. Give shape to the space. Play with contradictory qualities existing at the same time in you. How can something be both heavy and light, solid and airy, symmetrical and individual?

Writing: Inspired by the sculpture’s title, Ex-halations, write a double nonet poem about breath. The shape of your poem will resemble the hour-glass appearance of the sculpture. Center your text on the page so that the shape can emerge (i.e., not left justified). For the first stanza, the first line is 9 syllables, the second is 8 syllables, the third is 7 syllables, the fourth is 6, etc. all the way down to 1 syllable. In the second stanza, do the reverse. The first line is 1 syllable, the second is 2, the third is 3, etc. all the way up to 9.