[listen 1023 seconds] 2017

Listening and notating the whispers. Drew whispers in the windows and used 1023 seconds to do them to the soundscape of the exhibition. During the night the exhibition took on a different perspective altogether.

A whisper has the secretive quality to it. It is a private message in the public space, intended only for one to hear. It is an ambiguous communication. I hear the whisper and decipher the message in the whisper. The process of deciphering creates confusion of whether I heard and understood correctly. My impulse demands action which I respond upon.

The whisper is not our language.

The whisper is as it is. It has now become a notation on the wall. And the memory of what it sounded as. The whisper is as it is. Our language is distorted. Explanation is futile as language can’t fathom the whisper. Its structure does not account for the unknown. Its system defies explanation. We need a parallel system to create the equilibrium of understanding.

What happens if I can’t describe my experience with words? Do I then not understand the experience? Language is used to explain and convince. Language is used to find the truth or to tell the lie. The banality of either or and neither nor exposes the limitations of the language to properly understand what can be heard and seen and felt. It is emotionally bankrupt.

I am incompetent to express with words what I don’t understand but that does not stop me from living the experience.

Language and words behave as the dominant part of the experience, when they are only an integral part of it. To explain the experience with words destroys it. The moment will not be explained with words. If that is done, it ceases to exist. The memory of the moment will also be destroyed. The whispers from the unknown provide the full picture of what might be there.
The memory untouched.

We do not allow us to listen and feel.
We have forgotten how to listen.

[OR]

I do not allow myself to listen and feel.
I have forgotten how to listen.