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Arts & Communication A mean, the body. A mean body

These tubes are used for flood prevention and for weighing a non-mutable (solid) grid to the plaster contained in a
down swamped cars. Then, I take either a cotton or elastic flexible fabric formwork, I tested the flexibility and the way
cord, loop it around my body, and hang a sandbag from it. the material would question that limit and fill in the spaces
The sandbag needs to be equilibrated in the invagination with its mass (Figure 4A). On the other hand, when I applied
produced by its weight on the cord to avoid falling to the adjustable grids — usually made of cotton cord — no
ground. The material of the sandbag allows it to deform matter how adjustable they were, they would always end
when placed over the cord, and as it hangs, it almost divides up invaginating the material (Figure 4B), first in contact
itself in two, leaving a thinner section hold in between. with the fabric mold, and then when peeled, as a trace on
Sometimes, only the fabric holds, and the sand accumulates the plaster. Both processes left a scar — a gridded scar.
in the two — almost — divisions below. Due to gravity, the Moreover, even though one was more orthogonal, let’s say,
sand wants to be closer to the ground, a reason I have come because it did not deform, both were equally recognizable.
to believe in and support. The cord, in a way, does the same The grid was and is recognizable, and I like that. The result
to my body as to the sandbag on its opposite side, where it of these plaster pieces produced a very bodily feeling, both
hangs. It tends to divide the section of my body where it is in the hands and visually. They became sort of muscles—
suspended, perhaps my arm or thigh. It invaginates my skin, and cellular compositions—which eventually made me grid
muscles, tissue, and cells — God knows if the atoms can feel myself. The first try was just with tape, in an orthogonal way,
it, too. I repeat this step and hang as many sandbags as I can as I recognized my volume in space (Figure 5). Then, I hung
from my body. I get to hang up to ten at a time. Occasionally, those sandbags and caused some pain (Figure 3).
one falls, and I rearrange the hanging, or I move around and
pick up another option of sandbag and/or cord. 5. The grid is active
The word “invagination” is a noun. It can be an act or To cover my body with compost, I first collected the
process. I have a vagina, which is not an act nor a process compost for a week. I had a compost bin in my apartment.
(I think); perhaps the only invagination that is not, and it It was a metallic can. You must change the filters under
already exists in my body. By holding those sandbags with the lid every other month. It holds up to 3 l, I think.
cords, I invaginated myself until the weight became too The compost included banana peels, eggshells, arugula,
much. It can be too much. potatoes, kale, avocado pits, rice, tangerine peels, pepper
seeds, ground coffee, scallion stems, corn tortillas, and
And the performance stopped. After 8 min and 12 strawberry leaves. That was about it. Then, I thought about
s of it, I was sore for a week (7 days). The in-vagination the surface where the action would occur and decided
of my muscles was real, and the out-vagination caused that the wooden floor of my apartment would be suitable.
pain. The sandbags were left in random placements; how I just needed to cover it first. I used an opened-in-half tall
and when they fell from my body determined where kitchen trash bag, the white plastic one, and I taped the
they landed on the floor. These sandbags were triangular new borders of the rectangular plastic sheet to the wooden
pyramids made of equilateral triangles, measuring six by floor using tape. With that ready, I set up the structure for
six by six, nine by nine by nine, and 11 by 11 by 11 inches. my phone to lay on. I decided to record the performative
They formed 60-degree triangles because if each side of a action with my phone, an iPhone 11, yellow. I set up two
triangle measures the same, then the three internal angles plastic curtain rods between the two tall bar stools in my
have the same degrees, too, according to Euclid’s fifth kitchen, then taped the phone to them and ensured it was
postulate. The two types of fabrics were soft, resembling framed over the plastic sheet. I taped a cross over the spot
pillows, muscles, and water — held in bags. They fell due
to gravity, and deformed. The triangular pyramids were
almost unrecognizable, and to be honest, unless you saw
the molds before they were filled with sand, you would
never know (Figure 3)
For a while in my practice, I was invested in the
deformation of geometry, particularly within the grids they
might contain. I either sewed grids into fabric molds for
plaster or filled fabric molds with plaster and then, before
it dried, applied a grid to it. I would intervene, making the
grid either a limit the material would have to overcome
somehow — by deforming — or adding a grid that could Figure 3. Untitled sandbags, photographic documentation of performance
overcome the material and deform within it. When I applied by the author (New York, October 2021).

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 6 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1137