Traces of Existence

Traces of Existence is an installation formed by three interdependent entities: body, mind, and consciousness. The red threaded cage and the labelled white objects visualise how the tangled and complicated mind traps my thoughts and facts metaphorically, respectively. People attending this exhibition are invited to interact with the cage and the labelled white objects as, on the one hand, they are the ‘others’ who interact with my extended body/mind/consciousness to recognise my traces of existence as well as create a possibility for their extended body/mind/consciousness to emerge in this prosthetic space of art (Garoian, 2013); on the other hand, they become my consciousness making decisions of moving and allocating my thoughts and facts, and by conducting these actions of making sensing both for themselves and me, the metaphorical process of bridging one’s inner reality and outer reality is fulfilled both by the artists and the others physically and mentally. The mirrors reflect the movements created by the “mind”, and the “consciousness” is re-presenting the “body” as ‘what a body can do is change’ and ‘a body is a field of relation out of which and through which worldings occur and evolve’ (Manning, 2016, pp. 190-191); therefore, the body as mirrors enables the exchange of inner reality and outer reality to happen that the mirrors become the portal to the “outside” and the installation turns into a vessel which brings the others into the “inside”. This project's poetic turn of materiality enables the installation to gain its voice and send invitations to the artist and the others interacting with it to encounter the unannounced event of wonder that cannot be found or expected and become something new with possibilities (Springgay and Zaliwska, 2016).