THE HOUSE OF WATER - #29 WATER ABYSS (red version)2018

The I Ching, aka, the Chinese BOOK OF CHANGES, is a “reflection of the universe in miniature.” Attention is placed not on things in their state of being, but upon their movements in change. Its 64 hexagrams describe typical but different states of energy found in life; which allow one to connect with such energy thru philosophy and inquiry. Each hexagram has 2 trigrams, named after 8 elements of nature to describe particular qualities (wind is “gentle”). The I CHING’s 8 elements, each have their own “HOUSE”. The first hexagram in any house is a double of the same trigram. Similar, to the stacking of the lines in any hexagram, the HOUSE begins to change from the bottom up, forming 8 different hexagrams, through which we can see the initial energy transformed. When the bottom-line changes, it forms a different hexagram, becoming the second change in the HOUSE. In the 3rd change/new hexagram, the 2nd line has changed, and this is how it proceeds. THE HOUSE OF WATER, starts with the double of a trigram of “water” (#29), referred to as “water over water”. The element of water never loses its essential nature, it flows on and on and remains true to itself. It centers on the heart that can penetrate the meaning of all situations. THE HOUSE OF WATER is also know as the house of the “abysmal” because its first pictogram is of an abyss, a pit, or a ravine. In the beginning, humans lived in pit house dwellings, and dwellings could also be used for storage, to contain captives, or were sometimes used in rituals. Hexagram #29, suggests a dangerous situation, like being trapped in a pit or a gorge. It is about how to get out of old habits in the heart and mind that ensnare one. Its meaning is “the principle of light is enclosed in the dark” — “reason” combating obsession or emotion. You are vulnerable, but the danger needs to be faced. This is positive — it teaches one to adapt, not through aggression, as it flows over and around obstacles in its path. I interpret the hexagrams from this classic text oracle using gestural performances set in Nature, and New York City. This cinema is an image-based “language”, begun in my performances, transformed with digital techniques. The forms of the performance suggest a bodily connection to a dream logic. My method is derived from authentic movement, a technique of improvisational movement practice that allows its participants a type of free association of the body. Started by Mary Starks Whitehouse in the 1950s the theme of this "movement in depth" was perception of the body. I use alchemical colors of red and black here to show a progression of the changing figure. It is first presented as almost invisible against black, then it appears with black “shadow-holes” attached to it, then the body flips passing through a red zone, but cannot maintain the struggle and again returns as the struggling character in the end, as water continues to flow through an exterior view of a gorge.