Janine Antoni
I quiet myself, 2022
9 laminated cards with gold foil, instruction card, 8 1/2 x 6 x 3 3/8 inches wooden boxes
Edition of 10 with 2 AP
I quiet myself is made up of nine cards. The cards depict images of bodily gestures, each paired with related text to give the user a tool to access their own inner messages. A wooden box houses the cards and is also a pedestal to prop up the card of your choosing. The instruction card at the top gives a suggestion of how they could be used.
This work is inspired by prayer cards, a Christian tool designed to help the user take a moment in their busy day for contemplation. The thangka, a Tibetan Buddhist painting that is rolled, and the islamic prayer rug are two other examples of portable tools for contemplative practices. My version is an intention-setting device to remind the user to live from an embodied place. The cards offer the opportunity to tune into where we are emotionally and to articulate it through bodily expression. In doing so we honor the wisdom of the body and experience it as the vehicle of interconnection to ourselves, to others, and to the world.
© Janine Antoni; Photographs by Farzad Owrang, Luhring Augustine, New York.