MANGANESE, 2019, film photography, sizes variable. Inspired by Rumi, “Maybe you are searching among the branches for what only appears in the roots.” The film exposures from beneath a budding tree in spring are cast in two lights, a series in the color film imprint and a series within the feeling sense of knowing: manganese. Manganese is an element related to the metabolic processes within the human body as well as in manufacturing to prevent corrosion. Aesthetically making a reverence for nature translates through the notion of concentration. At high doses, manganese is lethal, and in deficits causes great pain. As Elaine Scarry writes in On Beauty and Being Just, Beauty offers experiences leading to resolutions of inner turmoil. The equilibrating of excess and deficit become resources for a tree to grow, following in the tradition of seekers and sages of wisdom. The tree now only exists in the exposures, having been cut in 2020. The power of the image, therefore mirrors that of the memory body of the human being. The series is represented by Albumen Gallery. *Note the resolution on webpages is for previewing purposes only, and to protect the artwork, it does not indicate the quality of the printed work.
Being is a held breath
and between these branches
are one-hundred-thousand breaths
toward the heaven
before the descent
back to the present.
Mari Amman, Kjerringøy Land Art Residency 2020
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