Catriona Gallagher

(left)

2017

watercolour and pencil on paper

(right)

2016-17

artist's book with text, drawings and cut outs

Developed in notebook form during the AtWork Moleskine artist's book workshop Heatwave by 3 137, as part of OpenGround professional development workshop in Athens, December 2016. 

Cool stone,

somehow able to stay that

significant bit cooler than

the air temperature of the room.

Finally I was able to cool down

and sleep

my back and shoulders

wetting the floor

where they touched the surface

limbs outstretched

against the stone

cooling the blood to deliver

to the rest of the body

exposed

to the burning black air of midnight.

Pulse slowed to a throb.

Blood at skin surface

depositing heat to the marble

and feeling it dissipate across the room

out to the four corners

to the walls

away from me-

from me,

my heat, within the floor now.

Each chip of marble

cooler than the concrete around it.

The skin of my back, my legs,

my arms

mirroring its pattern in temperature

cooler islands of jagged-edged shapes

surrounded by warmer rivers.

I wondered

if I rolled onto my front

and someone passed an infra-red

scanner over me

would they see the exact same

pattern as the floor

imprinted in my skin temperature?

Cooler islands of jagged-edged flesh

surrounded by warmer rivers of skin?

I inhaled slow and

exhaled cooled blood into

every capillary.

Lying on the marble floor

marble cool on my skin.