Crushed aluminium wine bottle cap

I picked this up because the force used to crush it was so visible, and beautifully draped. I almost imagine crushing it between by molars, the way aluminium crushes so well. The soft metal giving way, buckling to flatten under the force of my jaw. The human bite is surprisingly powerful as you will know if you have ever bitten your lip. The mouth is a sensor. As babies it’s our way of learning about the world – to test the qualities of objects and substances – our tongue and gums are more sensitive and subtle than our fingertips.

Softness in metals was always tooth-tested – gold bitten to determine purity. Our bodies hold an endless source of knowledge of the world, how stuff behaves, responds, feels, and how we feel about it. It’s no coincidence that emotion and tactility have the same descriptive word. Our bodies are intelligent and learn things quite apart from what we might consciously discover.