In Buddhist practice, a prostration is both a mental and physical activity. With the mind concentrated on compassion, the practitioner engages in the physical act of placing their body fully on the floor. The process is as follows: Starting in a standing position, the practitioner moves to place hands and knees on the floor. Hands then slide out until the forehead rests on the ground and arms are fully extended above the head. Once this has been accomplished the practitioner reverses the motion and returns to the starting position.
Over the course of 8 months I completed over 5,000 full-body prostrations. While engaged in these prostrations I recorded the movements with white pens attached to my hands.
I broke the process down into 47 sessions of 108 prostrations. Each cycle made four marks so the process resulted in 20,304 lines total. Since the materials are white ink on white paper, my marks were nearly invisible at first. But as the paper absorbed the repetitive kinetic energy it began to change and a ghost-like arc emerged.
CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON BELOW TO HEAR A SOUND RECORDING OF ONE SESSION
20,304 Lines
White ink and sweat on paper
43 x 91 inches
2018
20,304 Lines detail