States of Mind was an engulfing and disorienting experience. The day I visited one of the invigilators commented, 'We have a good mist today'. I was one of the first three people in the installation that morning and was glad we had seen each other before entering, it helped me feel safe. When other people entered I felt intruded upon, and when one of the disembodied voices loudly announced how the mist was formed and that there was infrared lighting to locate bodies the magic and mystery was altered for me.
The space asked that I focused upon myself, my perceptions, my consciousness, orienting by pacing the rooms edge with an outstretched hand. Breathing to keep relaxed, noticing the effect different colour light had on my thoughts, my emotions, my body. When brave I walked through the centre of the space, submitting to the mist that appeared thick enough to bite. I paused for a while, leaning against a wall, looking down to where my feet should be. Grey specks floated in my eyes, are they always there? Was it my eyelashes? I was reminded of being high in the hills as mist descends, (the word haar came to mind - a sea fog), and how in these outside spaces it is possible to feel simultaneously comfortable and so alone. It was my first experience of such limited visibility and I couldn't stay long.
