Separation (Working Title)
This project begins from the experience of separation: the slow realization that patterns of behavior, beliefs, or relationships that once held a life together are loosening and leaving. It explores what happens when, instead of numbing or reasoning away such moments of disappointment or betrayal, one stays with the physiological and psychological sensations of being “ripped”—the tightness in the arms, the held breath, the shock that moves through the body. Guided by the image of wildflowers spilling along the edge of asphalt and the act of simply gazing at them, the work asks how attention to these fleeting sensory fields can support the process of letting go and sending things on their way. Through writing poems, making paper garments to be worn by performers, and developing sketches toward a film or series of short films, the project examines how separation can be staged, seen, and felt step by step. Rather than beginning from hypotheses to be proven, it proceeds from not knowing, allowing images, gestures, and materials to surface as companions in navigating transition. Ultimately, the work aims to offer insights into how people might process intense emotions and life changes more gently and deliberately, by inhabiting the full arc of feeling rather than avoiding it.