THE PROJECT

I breathe the land; the land breathes me

The Breathing Wall explores the concept of a wall as a membrane implicating time and space: an entangled boundary between history and the present and a porous skin between communities, environments and the self.  “To be one is always to become with many.” (Haraway, 2008, p. 3-4)

Walls are frequently referenced as built structures that function to protect and divide, however most walls in our ecosystems function both to shelter and connect, like the tissue of the skin, the ozone, the earth’s crust, or even the walls of a building.  The buildings that house us and form part of our communities are themselves porous, impacted by time, history, environmental factors, and weather.  Human beings, built structures and the earth are interdependent and permeable.  Individuals, communities, place and history are entangled while remaining distinct.  To speak of this entanglement acknowledges the interdependent membranes of indigenous and settler individuals, communities, and histories on the land.  We live in a world in “which diverse bodies and meanings co-shape one another." (Haraway, 2008, p. 4)
 
The site of the exhibition, the historic E & N Roundhouse, lends its own voice to this collaboration and exhibition.  It shows evidence of the passing of time and the building’s porous relationship to history.  It speaks to the interdependence of the present and the past.  As James Baldwin said, “history is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” (Baldwin, 2010, p. 154). As a historic building in the region, the E & N Roundhouse attests to the fluidity of past and present; it has played a significant role in the recent history of what is often referred to as Vancouver Island and continues to act as a conduit to the past through its presence.