According to the author, tool signs have a wide range of attributes for the Batak people, from the concrete to the abstract, tool-signs are believed to condense the relation between subject and form, vision and hearing, smell and other sensory experiences. As he further explains, the creator and user of tool-signs is not a simple executor of tasks but he/she relies on a stock of cultural knowledge combined with a process of discovery, individual creativity and direct experimentation. I find this fascinating.
As a process artist I experience a strong connection with the materials I use. It is difficult to explain with the rational mind the sensory motivations I experience while touching, smelling, seeing and hearing the materials. The instinctual part of my being guides this process. It’s as if the forms, elements and substances I interact with permeate and alter my whole being. It is through this tactile interaction (experimentation) that I perceive an exchange and, in the exchange, I catch a glimpse of wholeness within. This is why I regard the process of my work as a total body experience: my work and body in a constant state of change and exchange, each informing and altering the other.
Consciously or not, I choose to make stuff with materials/ elements/ qualities that are deficient in me: my interactions with iron began (in 2014) when I was diagnosed with an iron deficiency. The doctor’s report stated an imbalance in iron and iron binding capacity in my system. It wasn’t something I could picture but surely felt as strong headaches and body fatigue. As I introduced iron into my diet, the element became more and more a part of my life. While trying to eat more meat, spinach and lentils, I also began using iron particles as one of the principal materials for my work. Years later (in 2018) the doctor’s report stated that the iron within my blood had sky-rocketed, so high that it was actually out of range. In a counter balance act, during 2019, I have been experimenting with iron in water, observing the rapid effects of oxidation of the material led me to a process I called: “turning iron particles into dust”, distilling a more refined version of the material/element I had been working with for so long. I asked myself, have I reached a balance of iron in my blood through this process?
Batak world view suggests that is not the body that becomes impregnated with a particular quality via contagious transfer and ingestion. Rather, it is the body that modulates itself naturally attuning itself to the qualities of food and the animals and plants that that food derives from.
I reformulate the previous question: Is my body in flux/ tuned to iron?
