Michal Samana; Walling
Michal Samana makes contact with the hallway wall in a thick dark blue winter
coat. Her tactile investigation involves all of her body. The rustling of her jacket becomes a rhythmic sound track, a sound that belongs to Mrs. Samana. Mrs. Santana's body begins
to move methodically down the hall way towards Aspect/ratio Gallery.
Her audience of composed of one part Art aficionados, two parts art academia.
They gather in a cluster to observe her exploratory journey. Her face is pressed flush
against the wall and her arm is fully extended also flushed against the wall with her palm
planted on it. Michal is listening, learning and reacting to the wall. Her movement is
slow, calculated and reactive. She seams in control, living in that one moment. Her
audience hangs on her versed movements. They navigate the hall with her almost in
tangent. They are careful not to touch the opposite wall so as not to emulate the sound of
her coat for she has claimed it as hers.
She traverses the long hallway into one the smallest galleries in the West Loop.
As the audience flows into the small space following Michal’s trail the gallery curator
politely invite people to shed their coats. To better engage as a group the tiny space
together. There inter most room of this gallery without lights and painted in a matte
You stand in pitch darkness, listening to Mrs. Samana move around the walls of
this room. Suddenly the sound of her coat brushing against the wall stops, she recedes in
to the paint. For what seams to be a concerning amount of time you wait. In darkness
with a group of relative strangers you wait. Slowly after your eyes have adjusted the
darkness you see. You see that she's holding a light source close to her body. Michal
begins to trace her body gently with a light crafting slowly a new image, yet familiar. As
if we to are in a metaphor for her womb. She welcome us into the inner most part of her
body and the inner most section of the gallery. The light comes and illuminates, then
The light begins to relate to a heartbeat slow and steady. Coming and leaving,
this light, it is slow, it is as a constant. Coming forth from the body, this light breathes.
This light, then steady and strong, breathing, emanating from her body, within it rhythm
coming and going. Like a new heart with a whole lifetime, of coming and going in their
All this, in a few minimal gestures with her medium, Michal’s body. Her
movements of her body conveying the politics of motherhood. The preparation of a body
In her work one can see many things, yet collectively you experience so much
more as an active viewer and voyeur of her body and of her practice.
She continues in space where time does not exist. Michal walk us through in her visual
langue with her medium the preparation of becoming a mother.
With her body answering the question? What does the maternal instinct of an eight-
month pregnant performance artist look like?