Holden Brown

A Physical Body of work

This body of work comes from my relationship with my own physical body. Since December of 2022, I have undergone five surgeries, and eight in total throughout my life. As someone who has also been an athlete my entire life, I have developed a deep awareness of and connection to my body. That experience has shaped the way I see and connect with others, and in many ways, this project becomes a way of telling my own story through other people.

I am drawn to the human body because it is the one thing that undeniably connects all of us. In a time where the world feels increasingly divided, the body remains constant. No matter who we are or where we come from, we all exist physically in the same way.

Across this series, I focus on individual parts of the body, ears, scars, eyes; often removing faces and clear identifiers. This allows differences like race, gender, and scale to fall away, leaving only form and texture. Bodies that might seem different begin to look the same. Lips become just lips. Skin becomes just skin.

The work is rooted in presence. I am not trying to guide the viewer toward a specific meaning but instead create space for them to sit with what they are seeing and form their own reactions. I want people to become aware of how they respond.

The work is installed in my own home rather than in a gallery. This creates a sense of intimacy and makes the experience more personal, allowing viewers into my space in the same way participants allowed me into theirs.

What connects all the videos is the body as a point of contact. Whether through eye contact, movement, or stillness, each piece offers a different way of engaging with another person.

I do not expect viewers to take away one clear meaning. Different people will connect to different pieces, and that matters to me. If anything, I hope they leave feeling a greater sense of connection to other people and to their own body.

Mouths

This piece focuses on how meaning is created. The script was developed through fragmented thoughts, later shaped into something closer to a poem.

Visually, the video isolates the mouth. Faces blend into one another, and voices overlap, making it difficult to separate who is speaking.

The work questions where meaning comes from. It considers whether it is formed by the person speaking or by the person listening.

By removing clear ownership of voice and image, the piece allows meaning to shift depending on how it is received.

Hands

This piece looks at hands as a way of understanding experience. Subjects were asked to write while speaking about how they learned to write.

The camera is positioned to focus on the hands, sometimes paired with part of the face, connecting physical action to spoken word.

The video is structured across different age groups. The differences in handwriting, especially with cursive, reveal a shift over time.

Alongside the video, completed notecards from the participants shown on screen are displayed, with additional blank cards inviting viewers to take part. Guests are asked to write their name, age, a brief note about their handwriting experience, and to attempt writing in cursive.

The piece does not explain or judge that change. It allows it to exist, asking the viewer to notice rather than be told what it means.

Shoes

This piece began as a simple idea, filming shoes at ground level. It quickly became something more. By removing their face, the subject is understood through what they wear on their feet.

Each pair of shoes carries its own story. Some are worn down, some are clean, some are tied with intention, others not. The differences reveal personality, routine, and memory without ever showing the person directly.

The camera remains fixed at ground level, forcing attention onto movement, posture, and detail. The absence of the face removes expectation and redirects focus.

What remains is a portrait built from what is usually overlooked.

Ears

This piece expands the project beyond a single place. People from around the world were asked to record the same action, starting at one ear, moving around the back of the head, and ending at the other.

The structure stays the same, but the location changes. Each clip carries where it was made, even when it is not named on screen. The repetition connects these places through one continuous motion.

The audio follows the visible ear, shifting from side to side. This creates a sense of movement and space, allowing the viewer to experience location through sound over image.

Locations include:

Scars

This piece comes from my own experience with injury and recovery. Scars are not just visual marks. They hold memory, pain, and time.

Each subject sat here, against this wall, speaking about their scar. What you see is projected back onto that same surface, placing their presence directly into the space you now occupy. By keeping the setting constant, attention shifts entirely to the body and the story being told.

Most scars are shown directly. Others are supported with additional images. This is not to replace the story, but to connect it to something shared. Bodies heal in similar ways, even when the experiences are different.

The piece is not meant to be watched all the way through. It exists as something the viewer moves through, hearing only fragments, but still forming a connection.