Air, in both its stillness and its movements, is what compels INVASIVA, the latest release by multidisciplinary artist Dorian Wood.

In early 2022, Dorian set out to investigate the root of her anxiety—and how her breathing is both affected by, and complicit to, her mental state—during an artist's residency at Loghaven in Knoxville, Tennessee. Upon touring the campus, she learned of the Whittle House, an abandoned cabin on the grounds that had not been inhabited for many years, set apart by the other nearby, fully-restored cabins. In encountering this site, Dorian connected with the idea of isolation as a catalyst for disrepair. She came to understand how separation could trigger a fear of losing self-awareness and the inability to escape. 

INVASIVA is a document of the artist meandering physically and mentally between two forms of confinement: "mandated" and "self-imposed". Like an abandoned house, the composition is filled with a stillness that seems both uninhabited and anticipatory. Gradual shifts in tone build an atmosphere of meditation, and droning notes are sustained like a deeply held breath. And yet, despite the fear of quiet isolation which permeates the piece, INVASIVA swells with slow respiration, revels in the wind, and echoes with gentle reminders of outside life. 

The work is one that emulates a contemplative state which is constant threat—and perseveres.  Comprised of the recorded stillness within the Whittle House, and sounds captured in the office lobby of Dorian's breathing specialist in Los Angeles, INVASIVA is a quiet, ethereal triumph over suffocating loneliness. It is a piece that is filled with inhalation, anticipation, reflection,  exhalation, release—it is filled with air.