The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, March 23, 2017 — 3B

“Make 
an 
installation, 

illicit emotion, and make it 
overwhelming” — these were 
the instructions given to Art 
& Design Sophomore, Perry 
Stella, for the second part of 
a project in one of her studio 
courses this year. For part one, 
Stella focused on the issues of 
memory and storytelling, while 
the second part was meant to 
represent an obstruction to 
those narratives. Though this 
might seem a challengingly 
broad starting point to some, 
for Stella, her subject was 
clear.

“Dissociative 
disorders, 

which can lend itself to social 
anxiety, is kind of like having 
the feeling that you’re not 
inside your own body, or that 
you’re watching experiences 
but you feel like you can’t really 
interact with the world around 
you” Stella said, describing her 
personal obstacles.

Stella, who has worked in a 

variety of mediums, has most 
recently focused on fiber work 
and 
installations. 
For 
this 

particular 
assignment, 
the 

project she ultimately created, 
called “Shelter,” is a 3D audio 
installation, wherein a four-
by-four foot cube is lined 
inside with dark black faux fur. 
On the inside, a composition 
of old voicemails Stella had 
collected and compiled played 
on repeat, growing louder and 
louder over a fifteen-minute 

interval.

“The voicemails are meant 

to 
represent 
all 
of 
your 

responsibilities; 
no 
matter 

how mundane they are, you 
can’t interact with them to 
actually take care of anything,” 
Stella said of the recordings’ 
significance. 
The 
sound 

ultimately became so loud 
that audiences were unable to 
understand the words.

Stella did not shy away 

from using her own coping 
mechanisms as a feature in the 
piece.

“The fur lining is actually 

something 
that 
I’ve 
been 

taught when I get into that 
out of body state — to find 
something very textural and 
hang on to it and feel it so you 
can ground yourself in your 
own body,” Stella continued.

The idea of sharing her 

experiences 
and 
exposing 

this 
kind 
of 
vulnerability 

to strangers at first seemed 
daunting. 
Stella 
further 

struggled with avoiding the 
frequently exhibited motif of 
the “tortured artist,” while 
honestly 
reflecting 
on 
the 

reality of her own mental 
health. However, she soon 
realized the importance of 
sharing such experiences in 
this visual way — it is accessible 
to all.

“At first I thought maybe I 

should water down the idea so I 
don’t have to talk about certain 
things, but I decided not to,” 
Stella said. “I was thinking 
about how art reflects how 
you experience the world, and 

how this dissociative disorder 
majorly affects how I perceive 
the world; it sometimes even 
takes me out of my own body, 
so how could I really ignore 
that?”

Her piece was shown along 

with the rest of her class in 
their studio (seeing as Stella’s 
box can hardly fit outside of 
the door), with an expectedly 
responsive 
and 
engaging 

audience. Many approached 
Stella to ask further questions 
about her experiences and to 
clarify their understandings 
of dissociative disorders and 
their effects. There were some 
ironically 
fitting 
surprises, 

too.

“I noticed something people 

really liked to do was bang on 
the outside of the box or try 
to get in at the same time that 
another person was in there,” 
Stella said. “So those were 
things that I didn’t expect 
but ended up really lending 
themselves to the project.” 
Others left with chills.

Stella was given an honorable 

mention for the 2017 Science 
as 
Art 
Contest 
exhibition 

this year and further plans 
on 
expanding 
“Shelter” 
to 

include a video documentation 
of the work with additional 
information about dissociative 
disorders.

“Mental disorders are so 

common even on campus, and 
that’s not talked about enough,” 
Stella said. “That really needs 
to be overcome, and through 
art and media, these things can 
be normalized.”

ARTIST
PROFILE

IN

On and Off the Yoga Mat:
Mindfulness at aUM

A rapidly growing number of 

students can be spotted toting 
yoga mats around campus on their 
way to one of the many studios 
that subsist in Ann Arbor. The city 
has over 37 Ashtanga Vinyasa (a 
variety of yoga that synchronizes 
breath and movement through a 
set series of poses based on the 
Ashtanga series) studios alone, 
which represent a small sliver 
of the mecca that the state of 
Michigan serves as for those that 
practice yoga. aUM is among the 
newest — and some might say 
more unconventional — of these 
studios, but has grown immensely 
since its opening in 2013.

It was in September of 2013 

that owner and University of 
Michigan alum Jessie Lipkowitz 
heard herself say the words, “I 
want to open up a yoga studio” 
aloud, before opening what she 
called “baby aUM” in an 800 
square-foot basement to only six 
customers. Since then, aUM — a 
play on the Sanskrit word “om” 
and the studio’s location — has 
moved into a 7,000 square-foot 
space on South University Avenue 
with over 60 regular clients, most 
of which are students.

When I first walked into 

aUM Yoga Studio, I was made 
immediately aware that I was 
entering a unique space. A sign 
in the doorway asks clients to 
take off their shoes, physically 
inoculating the space against the 
outside world. That was back in 
January, when upon returning 
from winter break, I turned to 
aUM in an effort to manage the 
stress that I had felt building 
inside me for months.

My 
initial 
experience, 

however, wasn’t the meditative 
austerity I’d expected. It was far 
more casual. The bright tones 
and weathered wooden decor 
of the interior buzzed with a 
similar energy to that of students 
filing into class. Though students 
are reminded to maintain a 
“sacred silence” prior to and 
during class, gentle murmurs 
permeated the cozy room before 
the instructor greeted everyone 
warmly. Samantha Lincoln, an 
LSA senior and student of aUM 
Yoga’s Demystify Yoga Teacher 
Training 
program, 
described 

aUM as “different from a lot of 
other yoga studios” that she’s 
been to, “It’s a really great 
(environment). Everyone is so 
friendly and welcoming.”

Before being thrust into a series 

of flows and positions I could 
barely maintain, I felt at ease; all 
while being reminded to consider 
my 
breathing 
(something 
I 

had abandoned early on in my 
efforts to contort my body). I was 
surprised by the challenge, and 
I left the class with a feeling like 
nothing I’d experienced before.

“You feel lighter,” said Lincoln, 

who in her third month of 
training, is becoming increasingly 
familiar with the physical and 
mental benefits of the practice.

Yoga teaches non-reactivity, a 

principle that aUM emphasizes 
both in its teacher training 
program and regular classes.

“When 
you’re 
doing 
this 

physical 
practice, 
the 
whole 

idea is that you need to be able 
to take it off the mat … whatever 
life throws at you, you want to be 
calm and rational in the face of it,” 
explained Lincoln.

Lipkowitz also described non-

reactivity:

“It’s being able to have an event 

happen and have completely no 
emotions towards that event until 
you can actually analyze it and 
immediately not react to it, and I 
think that’s a huge part of taking 
yoga off the mat and just being a 
calmer, less reactive person.”

She also added that this 

concept translates to greater 
mindfulness and self awareness, 
in turn allowing students to be 
kinder and more compassionate 
to themselves and to others. These 
mechanisms for coping with the 
pressures of life — whether trivial 
or major — on a regular basis are 
part of what makes the practice 
so unique. Though, Lipkowitz 
also added that she’s experienced 
similar benefits from other forms 
of physical exercise, such as 
running.

“I think yoga relies on the 

assumption 
that 
the 
human 

condition is that of suffering. 
Everyone is suffering and we all 
walk these different paths where 
there’s trifles and adversity … we 
all as human beings have to cope 
with a lot, and all of our coping 
mechanisms are different,” said 
Lipkowitz.

But she believes that non-

reactivity is part of what helps 
students cope with adversities, 
be 
it 
mental 
or 
otherwise. 

Every semester, aUM offers two 
scholarships for student packages. 
Over 
one 
hundred 
students 

submit 
applications, 
detailing 

their individual motivations for 
attending classes aUM. Many cite 
anxiety, depression and stress 
as their primary reasons for 
practicing yoga.

Lipkowitz trained at Center 

for Yoga and previously RussaYog 
(now permanently closed), which 
helped her envision the kind of 
studio where she would build her 
practice.

“Thinking 
back 
to 
my 

experience as an undergraduate 
— what would have gotten me to 
go to yoga — the first answer that 
came to mind was something that 
was a little bit less intimidating 
and a little more fun … but then 
the second thing that came to 
mind 
was 
community,” 
said 

Lipkowitz of her philosophy.

Lipkowitz 
was 
interested 

in targeting people who didn’t 
already practice yoga. At aUM, 
classes aren’t separated by level of 
intensity. Talking about her early 
experiences in yoga, Lopkowitz 
said:

“I think it’s really easy in yoga, 

and in any fitness studio that you 
go to, to feel like an outsider … I 
think aUM was really successful 
in creating a market for new 
people to explore and try yoga.”

However, it isn’t always easy to 

get people to try yoga for the first 
time, or to even stick with the 
practice once they try it.

“Talking about bodies or doing 

weird things with bodies is taboo. 
Even getting people to come in 
and trying to get them to connect 
with the breath is really difficult,” 
said Lipkowitz. “I think a lot of 
people who come in here don’t 
really get this yoga thing starting 
out, but they still connect with it 
because it’s a physical practice.”

For some, like Lipkowitz, the 

mind-body connection doesn’t 
come right away: “It took me 
years to find that connection,” 
she said. “But once you find that 
connection between breath and 
movement, I think that that’s 
really the power in yoga.”

Lincoln echoed this sentiment, 

saying: “You get this connection 
doing things that are physical and 
mental. I think at aUM they keep 
it very centered on mindfulness.”

Achieving mindfulness can 

become difficult when entering 
college, especially at a highly 
competitive 
school 
like 
the 

University of Michigan.

“I think it’s very much the 

culture here to do as much as 
possible, to be as successful 
as possible, to compete with 
everyone,” 
said 
Lincoln. 

“And at its core, yoga is a very 
noncompetitive thing.”

Though 
finding 
this 

connection is challenging for 
most, both Lincoln and Lipkowitz 
stated that the hour of time spent 
dedicated to self-care is a boon to 
mental and physical health in an 
environment where it isn’t always 
prioritized. Lipkowitz recalled 
that her time spent on fitness 
was edged out by her academic 
priorities when she was a student 
at 
the 
University. 
Similarly, 

Lincoln reflected on her time here, 
stating that she felt like there are 
never days off. However, at aUM, 
“It’s very much just about your 
body and what you can do. The 
classes are a very noncompetitive 
environment,” Lincoln said. “And 
you’re just taking time to take 
care of yourself and to just focus 
in on your thoughts.”

What aUM teaches students to 

take off the mat can’t be taught 
in an academic classroom, stated 
Lincoln.

“It’s not something you learn 

in school,” she remarked, “Even 
beyond what I could do to be 
successful or well-liked, do I like 
myself? Am I doing things that 
are making the world a better 
place? Am I at peace with who I 
am?”

While it may take years for 

some to find the answers to these 
questions, and while it may not 
necessarily be through practicing 
yoga, aUM offers a sanctuary for 
students to go to and ruminate on 
their own personal well-being.

As 
Lipkowitz 
previously 

stated, yoga offers methods of 
coping with some issues; though, 
it’s a personal path, and one that 
may be limited in what it offers to 
some more than others.

“I’m not going to say yoga 

cured any of my mental health 
issues,” said Lincoln. “I think it 
does help with body image a lot. 
There are kind of two sides to 
that. You start to be proud of what 
your body can do, rather than 
what it looks like. Also, you learn 
to forgive it for things.”

Lincoln continued, “It’s not 

like you do one yoga class and go, 
‘Oh that cured my depression.’ 
I think if you’re doing it enough 
and focusing enough on your 
breathing and bringing that to 
other situations it kind of seeps 
out into the rest of your life.”

There 
is 
often 
a 
taboo 

associated with mental health. 
Lipkowitz 
acknowledged 
this 

stigma, saying:

“You generally don’t talk about 

those things,” but that at aUM, 
“people are much more open and 
honest about how they’re feeling 
and just their general human 
experience more so than other 
fitness places or other businesses 
or other communities.”

Lipkowitz stressed that it’s the 

culture at aUM that she hopes will 
continue to empower people to be 
compassionate by connecting not 
only their bodies and minds, but 
also with others.

SHIR AVINADAV

Daily Arts Writer

SECONDARY

Ann Arbor’s aUM Yoga has become an unwitting refuge 
of peace and meditation, illustrating the virtues of yoga

COURTESY OF PERRY STELLA

Stella’s art installation

Stamps’ Perry Stella’s 
dissociative ‘Shelter’
Stamps sophomore explores the intersections of art, emotion 
and mental health in her recent interactive installation in a box

GRACE HAMILTON

Daily Arts Writer

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COURTESY OF AUM YOGA

