Perpetuum mobile of Body & Mind

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✦ Resurfaced from the archive: an animation from 2013. A different period, a different form, but a subject that continues to resonate, so time to share it here.

When the body falters, is that quiet resistance or the inevitable result of overdemand? Perpetuum Mobile of Body & Mind illustrates the seemingly endless search for balance between thinking, doing and being. A repeating story of losing, finding and starting over again and again.

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“Perpetuum mobile of Body & Mind.” Animation from my own archive, Indian ink on paper (2012 - 2013).

✦ Music composed and performed by JanWillem Lagerwaard.

✶ More than 250 frames, drawn by hand. I remember exactly how it felt and sounded back then: krg, krg, krg. A mixture of joy, pain, and ink.
I have kept all those illustrations — plus the sketches, form studies, and failed test runs. Why? I’m not sure... But being able to leaf through and hold that stack of frames now carries a weight — literally and figuratively.
Sometimes I think: sorry body, if only I knew then what I know now. But there is no ‘fast-forward’ in life. Experience brought me to where I am now: a body that guides instead of suffers, and a mind that accepts, though sometimes reluctantly.

✦ Animation and images are from the precious matters personal collection: now part of this growing archive. A lifetime of small moments, gathered with care: fragments of a soft universe in the making.

✧ Originally written in Dutch by Merel Slootheer. Translated with care and intuition by Blackbird Ditchlord.