What will your next thought be?

Focused attention can be trained on any object (e.g., a mantra, a diety, or a flame),. Focus on the breath or a mantra or a repetitive action helps to stabilise the mind (bring it to stillness). Focusing on one object is thought to be helpful – mostly because it does not allow many other distractions to arise. With this in mind I have created a series of images that involves folding, tearing paper, and repetitive technique. This work is quite technical but very simple at the same time. Photographing white on white is hard.

During lockdowns I created work of everyday objects, photographing them with a beauty aesthetic, something you would not normally see in the objects I chose. These objects included a piece of A4 Paper and 4 years later I have once again used a piece of paper but for slightly different reasons. Over the last 8-10 months I have been quite overcommitted with work but also now living alone as an empty-nester. I have also been feeling despair with what is happening in our world and needed to calm and still my brain. I weirdly came across a fellow on Instagram who posted a story on how to rid your brain of thoughts. He asked the viewer to slowly breathe in and then breathe out and ask yourself one question— “what will your next thought be?” All of a sudden my mind went blank! It didn’t last for long but to me it was a revelation. I have never been good at meditation so focussing on something repetitive is good for me.

I have been using repetitive meditation in my work on the on what is happening in Gaza, too, in protest.

So these images below are aesthetically banal but had a healing effect on my thoughts, when making them. The images of each page of paper will be printed and made into a Photobook, which in when read/viewed hopes to have the same effect to you, the viewer as it did to me when making it: to still your thoughts and to question, what your next thought will be?