Where Does the Body End? (2025)

Taking the James Lovelock’s assertion that the earth can be understood as a living entity, Steenson’s artwork Where Does the Body End? explores the philosophical potentials of understanding the atmosphere as collective, communal body. Thinking in this way, the work explores how our breath allows us, along with all living bodies, extend across spatial and temporal scales, implicating us each in a ‘dense commons of ambiance’.

Drawing on meditation practices and philosophical ideas ranging from Maurice Merleau-Ponty to the writer Daisy Hildyard, the work takes the form of a spatial sound installation that responds in real-time to changes in air quality in and around the gallery.

Singing bowls placed in the space are struck in response to PM2.5, whilst a pedestal fan – whose fan blades swivel and spin as they speak and breath – delivers a series of meditations, monologues and anecdotes. In asking us to think about where the boundaries of our bodies might exist, and by situating the air within the same political space as issues surrounding bodily autonomy, the work forces us to question our understanding about how we exist with, and within, the atmosphere around us.

The development of this work involved a series of workshops involving members of the Westside community in Galway, including ceramics workshops and a series of sound walks.