My Body is a Sundial
A conversation between two bodies held too close: human and celestial, ricocheting, raging and merging inside hot cities of glass, asphalt and steel.
The body is not only a record of solar time but also of solar intensity; we are fundamentally, sensorially, emotionally and biologically interconnected to our closest star. My Body is a Sundial invites visitors to step inside the organic container of the artist, suspended between the rejection and recovery of an intimate relationship with the sun across time and space.
Encased in metal and cleaved in two, layers of paint merge, sweat, pulse and crawl between a sundial of twelve panels – embodied memories of summers past and present. As the sun travels across the sky, figurative glimpses appear and disappear, casting shadows that expand and contract, while human and more-than-human visitors alter paintings and sight-lines through their physical presence and reflections.
Inspired by Melting Metropolis, a Wellcome Discovery Award project at the University of Liverpool and Queens College, New York, the sculpture responds to archival research and community oral histories that illustrate the emergence and impact of urban heat islands in London, Paris, New York and Port of Spain, Trinidad. Around the world, heat is fast becoming the leading cause of weather-related deaths, revealing how our bodies have not evolved to live in cities that are perfectly designed to entrap the Sun.
Each pane of My Body is a Sundial integrates these stories alongside the artist’s auto-ethnographic and sensory-led ‘drawing heat’ practice. Together, they chart a series of conversations between two bodies held too close: human and celestial. Ricocheting and converging inside hot cities of glass, asphalt and steel, summer memories and desires are interspersed by moments of clarity, illuminating the intensity of solar time, wisdom and warning.
My Body is a Sundial is both a touring sculptural installation and the stage for Stand of the Sun, a sister-performance that offers a new solstice ritual for a time of climate breakdown.
Melting Metropolis is supported by a Wellcome Discovery Award, grant number 225843/Z/22/Z.
Photography by Ewelina Ruminska, 2025-26
Exhibitions
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Current: The Sun and Moon: Art inspired by the Celestial, Saatchi Gallery, London, 5 June – 8 September 2026
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Past: Cultural Reforesting, Orleans House Gallery, London, 2025
A body that dreams of dawn
“As the heart of our solar system moves through my mid-afternoon body, a body that dreams of dawn as dusk draws closer, the intense pressures of heat, clock-time, uncanny seasons and narrow sight-lines of how to live well, here, now, surface.
We are holding the Sun too close, and yet we need the Sun. We evolved with the Sun. Our bodies contain the Sun. Is there still time to find new ways, or old ways, of being in more harmonious relationship with our closest star?
Subtle movements and minute noticings stir. Re-membering ancestral patterns, rescuing childhood awe and nurturing empathy for a body that has accompanied me throughout; a celestial body that is also trapped in these cities. A body also fuel for systems distorting evolutionary cycles.”– Bryony Ella
My Body is a Sundial
A conversation between two bodies held too close: human and celestial, ricocheting, raging and merging inside hot cities of glass, asphalt and steel.
The body is not only a record of solar time but also of solar intensity; we are fundamentally, sensorially, emotionally and biologically interconnected to our closest star. My Body is a Sundial invites visitors to step inside the organic container of the artist, suspended between the rejection and recovery of an intimate relationship with the sun across time and space.
Encased in metal and cleaved in two, layers of paint merge, sweat, pulse and crawl between a sundial of twelve panels – embodied memories of summers past and present. As the sun travels across the sky, figurative glimpses appear and disappear, casting shadows that expand and contract, while human and more-than-human visitors alter paintings and sight-lines through their physical presence and reflections.
Inspired by Melting Metropolis, a Wellcome Discovery Award project at the University of Liverpool and Queens College, New York, the sculpture responds to archival research and community oral histories that illustrate the emergence and impact of urban heat islands in London, Paris, New York and Port of Spain, Trinidad. Around the world, heat is fast becoming the leading cause of weather-related deaths, revealing how our bodies have not evolved to live in cities that are perfectly designed to entrap the Sun.
Each pane of My Body is a Sundial integrates these stories alongside the artist’s auto-ethnographic and sensory-led ‘drawing heat’ practice. Together, they chart a series of conversations between two bodies held too close: human and celestial. Ricocheting and converging inside hot cities of glass, asphalt and steel, summer memories and desires are interspersed by moments of clarity, illuminating the intensity of solar time, wisdom and warning.
My Body is a Sundial is both a touring sculptural installation and the stage for Stand of the Sun, a sister-performance that offers a new solstice ritual for a time of climate breakdown.
Melting Metropolis is supported by a Wellcome Discovery Award, grant number 225843/Z/22/Z.
Photography by Ewelina Ruminska, 2025-26
Exhibitions
-
Current: The Sun and Moon: Art inspired by the Celestial, Saatchi Gallery, London, 5 June – 8 September 2026
-
Past: Cultural Reforesting, Orleans House Gallery, London, 2025
A body that dreams of dawn
“As the heart of our solar system moves through my mid-afternoon body, a body that dreams of dawn as dusk draws closer, the intense pressures of heat, clock-time, uncanny seasons and narrow sight-lines of how to live well, here, now, surface.
We are holding the Sun too close, and yet we need the Sun. We evolved with the Sun. Our bodies contain the Sun. Is there still time to find new ways, or old ways, of being in more harmonious relationship with our closest star?
Subtle movements and minute noticings stir. Re-membering ancestral patterns, rescuing childhood awe and nurturing empathy for a body that has accompanied me throughout; a celestial body that is also trapped in these cities. A body also fuel for systems distorting evolutionary cycles.”– Bryony Ella
