A vastness is implied

This text reflects on Wave hands, like clouds, not eyes, a project I developed at Or Gallery in Vancouver in Autumn 2021. The artistic research unfolds from the internal martial art of 太極拳 taijiquan, which integrates combat techniques and qigong breathing-moving exercises. Deploying transdisciplinary aesthetic strategies, the inner processes of this martial practice and its broader cosmological framework are transposed as spa, as garden, as landscape, inviting visitors to engage with their whole sensorium. Rather than an exhibition, I consider the project a framework for learning from and with others through embodied knowledge practices. Reflecting through stories that revisit the spatial narrative and its making, this text considers how embodied practices—including the practice of writing—can enact feminist theory. This writing connects threads of artistic research, embodied practice, and feminist theory, exploring subjectivity as porous, fluid, and interrelational. Interwoven are exchanges with movement artists Lee Su-Feh and Justine A. Chambers; with architectural scholar Christie Pearson; collaborations with herbologist Gina Badger and parfumière Megan Hepburn; and written reflections from curatorial student Daisy Kim and dancer Kristen Lewis.