In need of a breath
Vienna Pisana
In need of a breath
Laneway Cafe, Monitors, Wentworth Building (June - November 2026)
Artist Statement
We like to think of ourselves as the primary agents, and drivers of our experience.
This is all well and good, until we lose ourselves in the gap between our material and immaterial self. My print series, titled “In need of a breath” derives inspiration from our intimate, subjective experiences we have with our body in times of tension. The screenprints are arranged sporadically, each print a result of different experiments, resisting the replicability that the printmaking process implies. The combined inconsistency of the prints distorts the visual field, contributing to a metonymic reading of the self as ruptured and divided, and without synchronicity, connecting with Julia Kristeva's constitution of the self as unstable.
Through my study of psychology, I refer to the systems we use to guide distinctions between corporality and our thoughts. Considering the relativity of language in our perception of the world, I emboss the text “Breathe” and “Exhale” onto the surface of the prints. These are simple but common reminders used in the core of breathing practices, which ultimately reflect an attempt to insert oneself, and demand agency when anxiety takes our control.
When control is lost, we are left questioning what is driving our experiences, as the biological systems of our body place us as merely passive onlookers. What’s more, this imbalance of control and synchronicity threatens the boundaries in which we align our sense of self. I reflect this through images that depict our skin. Our relationship to our skin is more significant than the relationship to the parts of ourselves we can’t see. This relationship is tormented, distorted by MRI images of the parts of us we haven’t met, a jawbone, the breath of the diaphragm... the bits that disgust us. Making it quite clear, we ARE what repulses us, that of which our skin cannot hide.
Verge Projects is a platform that aims to strengthen the University of Sydney community and networks through on-campus art activations. Verge Projects delivers community engaged projects led by and in collaboration with student and student groups. Stepping outside of art faculties and spaces, this program encourages inclusive and creative experiences campus wide.