Corespiration is a series of sculptures in blown glass. The works consist of pairs of blown vases that seemingly appear to melt into each other. Within this fluidity holds an attempt in representing the idea of corespiration: two distinct individual breaths coming together, which in turn take on a single form. In one of the vases, a flower is propped up in a solution of blue pigments, which it gradually absorbs. The colour begins to appear on the petals, providing a visual marker of the progression of time. Imagined as a contemplative encounter, Corespiration aims to engage the viewer in a durational experience which evokes the idea of a shared pace of time.
Corespiration evokes a dialogue or an intimate relationship, a silent but fundamental event, of which the prefix implies a with or togetherness. Within corespiration, concepts of society and respiration come together. Each singular breath is joined with the breath of others to form a corespiration: what we call society. The act of breathing is both the starting point and the fundamental rhythm of this structure. It is a very human perspective of time and of society, which evokes the idea of a common reality that evolves slowly, one breath at a time.
Corespiration is a set of poetic interpretations of a lived and felt temporality. Faced with the impossibility of conceiving a reciprocating breathing exercise with the other in the present, Roch-Cuerrier tries to imagine, through the proximity and the interaction of these blown forms, a future where the other is closer. Through the different forms created and the ways in which they come together, the artist wants to illustrate different modes of dialoguing and interaction. Despite the vessels acting as individual objects, they exist within a shared reality with one another: the work only takes on its full meaning through their assemblage.
Conceptually, the project is inspired by a series of discussions that Roch-Cuerrier had in recent years with curator Josephine Rivard. In the fall of 2019, in order to bring together and perpetuate this dialogue, they initiated a written correspondence. Over the course of the discussions, several subjects became intimately linked to the definition they built around corespiration: feminism, ecofeminism, ethics of care, and mutualism. In spring 2020, an excerpt from their correspondence was published on the digital platform Résidence Éditions. This opportunity to share their ideas with a wider audience allowed them to accentuate the open and continuous dimension of these ideas, and to invite readers to reflect in turn.
JULIE ROCH-CUERRIER 