Soft Animal Body (2019)

This ten-minute video lecture was commissioned by Haema Svanesan and Marina DeMaio who are putting together a Buddhism and Art confab called In the Present Moment: Buddhism, Contemporary Art, and Social Practice at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in October, 2019. I was supposed to be on a panel but fear of flying led to further video steals. The text came out of sessions with Emotion Focused Therapy maestro Bill Gaynor. Anne Carson and Karl Ove Knaussgard make appearances, along with a bevy of writers and meditators. What if the pause before speaking was equal to the speaking itself? How to grant attention, to celebrate even, the moments of pause?