The Feeling in My Tongue

About

The Feeling in My Tongue is an interdisciplinary exhibition featuring six practice-based doctoral candidates at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts. The exhibition showcases their ongoing research projects through various media such as textile, sound, installation, performance, and moving images and offers to explore our own individual perception of their works. How does our engagement with sensorial, auditory or tactile based on our lived experiences or impairment evoke sensations and emotional responses in our bodies? We invite you to investigate how the subjective process of perception and engagement is influenced by one's accumulated life experiences, and how such interactions manifest in physical responses within the observer's corporeal and experiential dimensions.

While body-mind discussions span across numerous discourses, from spirituality to philosophy, psychology to contemporary arts and so on, this exhibition explores the role of feelings and sensations in the human body. The earliest sensorial exploration is claimed from the oldest Buddhist meditation technique, Vipassana.  It involves investigating the physical reality and presence through one's own sensations within the body's limits. By observing our bodily sensations in a still position and how our minds react to them, we can see reality as it is. 

Contrary to Vipassana’s ideas, which involve concentrating on bodily sensations in absence of movement without intellectualising or visualising the practice, the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s (1908-1961) approach to the body emphasises bodily reflection's dynamic and directional nature, focusing on its potential. According to Merleau-Ponty, understanding the body's movement is crucial in understanding how we live. In addition, his concept of intercorporeality (intercorporéité) highlights the unique connections we share through our bodies and our subjective experiences of the world. 

" Each one of us is pregnant with the others and confirmed by them in the body".

In this quote, Merleau-Ponty employs the metaphor of being "pregnant" to empasise the interdependence that binds individuals and beyond. Our engagement with the world is fundamentally mediated by our corporal existence. It argues against the notion of our bodies as mere vessels, suggesting instead that we are inherently inseparable from our embodied perceptions. 

To move away from mind and body dualism or the dichotomy of dynamic and stillness, you are invited to reflect upon the emotive and physical reactions provoked by each piece. Engage with an artwork that resonates with you and contribute to the dialogue by documenting the feelings and sensations experienced in the book provided within the gallery space. This exercise serves as a personal exploration and a collective archive of embodied responses to artworks on display. 

The opening of this exhibition coincides with Deafblind Awareness Week, and offers a timely contribution to increasing awareness and understanding of dual sensory loss, which affects over 450,000 people in the UK. Three Highgate has collaborated with experts in the field Philippa Bradbury and James Nathaniel McVicker to develop a range of accessibility features for the exhibition, including Braille and large print communications.