This was from an idea I have worked on that I had during the workshop with Anna a few weeks ago. I have used clay in my hands instead of a brush with ink to create an ensō circle in order to erase the boundary between you and the object.
There are obvious Religious properties of the object and the creation of the image is also essential to it. In Zen Buddhism, an ensō circle is hand drawn with one or two strokes of a brush to express a moment in the time when the mind is free to let the body create. It is a symbol of absolute enlightenment and of strength, elegance, the universe and mu (the void). It is entirely minimalist, but shrouded in endless meanings.
It is a spiritual practice for self-realisation called ‘Hitsuzendo’ meaning way of the brush.
But what If you were to take away the tool? Would it create a more personal, direct representation of yourself at that time? A physical symbol of your unconscious mind. The artefact created, would it then hold spiritual meaning itself, hold a part of your conscious?
I chose to use clay rather than ink to represent ideas of entropy, the passing of energy from one form to another and eventually the clay would decompose and become part of the Earth once again. Just as we will as humans.
sarahpadbury 