ivan beck

This work was guided by two over-arching questions that, in the midst of a sustained crisis, my body demanded answers to: “how am I to survive this?” and “what is this that I am meant to survive?” Ordinary States is a literary-visual journey of my sense-making process while disorientated.

gut feelings and visceral logics.

Disorientation is an unsettling bodily feeling that “can shatter one’s sense of confidence in the ground or one’s belief that the ground on which we reside can support the actions that make a life feel livable” (Sara Ahmed, 2006, p. 157). Disorientation can make us want to give up or hurry back before we know fully where we may have been headed.

how am I to survive this and what is this that I am meant to survive?

To turn away from a direction made possible by disorientation before fully knowing where we may be headed would be to forego an exploration of what moments of disorientation might tell us, what they might do and what we might do with them..

move with me through my disorientation. expect nothing. feel everything.

DesBrisay Museum – Jan 11 – Feb 8, 2025
Tides Gallery – Mar 5 – 30, 2025