Floating, by Håvve Fjell

Fyris River at Dombron

I observed the actual floating of the suspended artist from the river side. It took a while, all preparations minutely executed. Then he climbed over the fence and his body floated free in the air except for the 12 hooks through his skin who were united by a thin rope to a hanger attached to a chain pulley hanging from a rope stretched over the river between to trees.
It is a work confronting perceptions of pain, and mental limits for what the body might endure. Although the skin is penetrated by several hooks, only a very small mark of blood is visible. This makes a difference, as the aesthetic attitude tends to change into an emphatic mood at the sight of blood.
The artist was calm, chatting with the audience while suspended, or making exercises to get warm. In a suspension act the experienced pain is balanced by an euphoric feeling caused by physiological reactions. This sensation is strong enough to make people willingly expose themselves to suspensions more than once. In this work it is obvious that the artist endures pain by his own conscious choice. Otherwise it would be unacceptable!