Atmospirit — The Last Breath and the Big Wind

ARTIST”S STATEMENT – Erika Knerr

“Atmospirit” combines the two words atmosphere and spirit and deals with the space between now and the hereafter. It is about consciousness inside a physical body reality (persona) and a consciousness that has been released from the physical body. This project was originally conceived in 2007 for Camouflash: International Artists Meeting, Lodz Poland, PATIO Art Center Academy Humanities and Economics Lodz: Mariusz Soltysik (Author), then traveled to Dresden, Germany and to Mediations Biennial in Poznan, Poland in October 2008. The piece evolved over its three incarnations. I expanded the soundtrack for Poznan to include my voice inviting the viewer into the circle to sit down and listen to a very basic meditation instruction, overlaying the breath as well as adding wind.

My interpretation of the Camouflash theme was an existential one based on the experience of witnessing my father’s last breath. Titled “Atmospirit,” I used a soundtrack looped with 30 seconds of my dad’s breathing, a few days prior to his leaving his body, and 15 seconds of silence. I used seven suspended pillows in a circle, seven covered pillows on the floor underneath, that were meditation cushions, around a white painted circle on the floor. Inside the circle was a white bed sheet. It was a difficult, yet cathartic process for me to work through, so soon after my father’s death in 2007. I had intended the viewers to come in and sit on the cushions, to listen to the breath, as one would follow their own breath as the object of meditation practice, but no one did. People responded to it as a sacred and untouchable space to walk around and not interact with, much as they would view any artwork. This led me to further develop the soundtrack, for the most recent installation, to invite the audience to participation, activating the room as a public space for meditation, and thoughts coming and going. Allowing the public in also invited unexpected interpretations where viewers laid down rather than sat on the pillows.

“Atmospirit” is in contrast to the black hole theory of Baudrillard [ideas used in the shows conception by M. Soltysik], where the merger of the real and the techno-mediated fake into hyper-reality will be pushed to it’s limit and implode upon itself in a tragic future. Rather than an existential meaningless and sense of being lost in the hyper-real and in globalization, I am posturing an image of hopefulness and sanity in contact with the values of an unconditional past, to a more essential relationship with our environment.

The emergence of self-sustaining systems (renewable energies) and a return to ideas of localization (buying local produce, etc) are some ways of connecting to our environment on a social scale. On an individual scale the focus on the reality of the breath is the most direct way to awaken to the present moment. The silence or gap at the end of the breath connects us to the groundlessness and spaciousness of the spirit.

Camouflage = Subject = Self
Flash = Object = What we are perceiving

The subject of “Camouflash” for me relates to concepts of Buddhist meditation practice. In meditation teachings, there is an emphasis on the capacity to heal the condition of contemporary man by creating an enlightened society. The self has a natural tendency to cocoon, conceal or camouflage itself. The driving energy behind this is fear. The object is to experience the world without camouflage. The vast majority of life is moved through unconsciously, so the “flash” is that moment when one is fully awake in the present moment. This is a state of fearlessness, groundlessness as well as of rawness, vulnerability and tenderness. For me “this specific schizophrenia” of conflicting emotion is about the ability to move through the habitual social patterns of surface entertainment and embrace oneself completely with gentleness, fearlessness and intelligence. Mindfulness meditation practice is, in essence, one way to create this kind space around the mind.