Dark and mysterious, caves evoke thoughts of the unknown. To enter a cave is to meet our fears, to grasp the hidden parts of ourselves, and to experience a space that seems to sit between this world and another. Emerging from a cave, we may feel humbled yet strengthened, transformed by the encounter.

Made up of ice, a torch and a photographic print, In the Breathing Light is a site-specific installation that reimagines a cave and seeks to evoke a sense of stillness. For it is in stillness perhaps, that we may recognise, confront and release the thoughts and emotions that lie hidden in our subconscious.

While this is on first sight a visual work, it is also one that explores the bodily sensorial experiences of sound and temperature. At the exhibition site, audiences likely first encountered the light on the floor and water reflections on the wall before noticing the sound of water droplets and the coolness of the air. I had hidden the melting ice block from view and made it hard to discern the size of the puddle on the floor, to generate in audiences initial disorientation and then, a growing quiet awareness of their bodily presence in the space.