It seeks to observe the quiet habits that are culturally or socially instilled within us and ones we come to find ourselves as we live an experience which demands us to develop coping techniques. It's a peek into the bedroom, bathroom, garden, shopping trolly and the wardrobe and headspace.

How important is the end product of anything you do? How much of that process is about the active reconciliation of your past, present and future self. Looking at the performative aspect of those activities, the most grounding of rituals, the boiling of the broth, the reading, the walking, the visit to the hairdresser or dressing up in finding your-well-self again. Is the end result of all of these actions in fact in its process, and as such is reconstruction the most accessible, unifying and creative action despite its many guises?

Moving between the real and imaginary, all artists recount a deeply personal experience of being. The book proposes a set of instructions which can repeat, re-emerge and morph across the gallery in the form of installation, ceramics, performance and painting.

Raynerius
The Baths are of the Raynerii which heal decaying bodies,
with the two men who are the enemy of it (decay), salt and phlegm.
If from the creeping scars of the body you wish to creep,
A disease on the exterior that you want washed.
For whomever works to clean infected skin
Use the Raynerius, the skin will be healthy
If you do not (/if you cease) you incur the dangers
of the disease again The bank waters are terrible
with the healthy
I have seen many of them who dislike/fear the layer/flake/crust
(presumably eczema or similar skin condition?)
This has made the people rich, like decay, rotting.
The Raynerii, controlled by the waters of the lake, are
waterlogged and swollen Happy to be fat (rich) emptying
the waters.

Trituli
This ancient place is like entering the back of a tortoiseshell,
A house ingeniously carved from under a rock.
Here the diseased may change shape to their full form (?)
Which it is said anything given to the water may be able to.
It is enough of a thing to be wondered at, to
see them stand erect. This comes on a stream
that is sent only once (per day):
These are some of the first waves, and some
Having been thinned with flowing flows back whence it came.
This is more than long Bethesda does once a year (?).
One quickening motion of disease
This water has moved many on his daily journeys
Rheumatism flees / It strengthens the head of the stomach,
Frees (you) from dropsy, it is all put to flight.
Phelgmatics profit from it, and it prevents fever.

Traditionally, the Makara is a mythological Tamil sea creature, often depicted as a hybrid animal (elephant/crocodile/deer and then part aquatic), and is considered a guardian or protector of the sea. Sometimes depicted as the vehicle for the Hindu river goddess Narmada. A version of the Makara is imagined here as part crocodile, the water has become part of the her; her body now fluid and transparent, disguised within and as part of the sea. The crocodilian scales bring the Makara close to a familiar place, but she remains very much an a elusive creature with protective powers. Waves are inverted within her body, curling inwards; she has become a body of water. The flow, lick and tickle of the waves creates a forward flowing motion, allowing her to move with more power. Her purpose is to to guard and protect.

Prato
It is the waters of the people/parish of Prato of which
the Balneum speaks Believed by many to be (the one
in) the work of Cicero
There is a difficult way which leads to the
lower regions (medical) And he is seeking a
water for sickness
This well reported excerpt invites consideration
It alleviates the hernias of the body heavy with humors (liquid).
It is said that it marvellously softens hard muscles
And the head, and shoulders for their correct drawing.
It wipes away fattiness and ulcers before the eyes.
In both the body lends support,
When wet with cold sweat it’s time to avoid (it)
And do not drink it when (your) hands/limbs are warm.

I thought about my crying body as a fountain, water collecting in
pools at my tear ducts, distilling and expelling in drops. Salty liquid circulating and recirculating.
What if all the tears you’ve ever cried were the same tears? Flowing out and then reabsorbing
back into the skin through some kind of osmosis?

Translations by  Sukayna Powell

Photography by  ZAC and ZAC

Futher reading:

Marina Warner - Indigo 

Goblins - Jen Calleja

The Crying of the Wind - Ithell Colquhoun

All about love - bell hooks

Salt slow - Julia Armfield

Amalgam - Nina Royle

The Mermaid of Black Conch - Monique Roffey

Mermaids and Dreams in Visual Culture - Louise Milne

States of the Body Produced by Love - Nisha Ramayya

Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water - Astrida Neimais