'We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.' 1
'These rocks used to talk to me, they answered my questions.' 2

Anxiety triggers circular thinking, which in turn can trigger circular walking. Overactivity in the right side of our brain can cause a leftward trajectory in our walking motion. The benefit of circular walking ensures that the point of departure is always also the destination and vice versa, allowing for a familiar enough journey which may quell your anxieties enough to forget you are even walking in the first place. The trouble with searching for feelings is that you find them, just as you encounter your own footprints on the second lap of the circle, they appear familiar yet alien at the same time. Of course one would have to assume that enough time has passed, that the circle was large enough to be lost in thoughts long enough to not fully recognise one's own foot prints on meeting them, or indeed, to not even notice one was walking in circles in the first place. The impressions in the soil (assuming the earth is muddy) are like a mirror but not really because they are physical impressions. More than a reflection they are a mould but they are more than that too, a bodily memory on the earth, that exists in all the dimensions. The discomfort caused by this encounter lies in the inability to fully recognise the imprints as one’s own, therefore interpreting them as a threat, a ghoul or monster perhaps. The real horror however occurs in fully recognising the prints as our own, we no longer remember ourselves and in doing so embody the monster we fear. On each turn of the circle a new set of prints are added, spiralling the sense of dread at what lies ahead.

1. Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka & the Choclate Factory (1971) Directed by Mel Stuart. USA.
2. Karamakate, Embrace the Serpent (2015) Directed By Ciro Guerra. Columbia.

Photos by Bruno Lopes.

Dan Rees - Depressed Earth
Múrias Centeno, June 29 - July 30
www.muriascenteno.com