ppp—fff

Of course speech and objects aren’t the same, but they can be subjected to similar processes. Meaning comes through removal. I’m thinking about enunciation, but I’m not speaking. In general, I’m rarely interested in seeing either language or objects as ways of pointing back to their source (as if the speech belonged to the speaker or the table to the good-taste designer under whose name it’s identified). I’m not talking about enunciation as a formal announcement or a normed pattern of ‘correct speech’. I’m talking about how the same word will sound different each time its spoken depending on the words around it and the role it is being asked to play in the sentence. I am speaking about the dislocation of the light and the light source. Had we been speaking ? Had I spoken ? On a video call between two European cities, A. tells me that all the pieces in the exhibition are contained within the dynamic markings of the show’s title: very very quiet to very very loud. Musical dynamics are not fixed in any measurable (outside) sense. They are relative to what is around them. That is to say, very very loud does not correspond to a particular decibel level, but it is louder than very loud. It’s loudness is contingent on both the quietness/loudness around it and on the relative capacities of the sound producing instrument. A very loud violin, say, is much quieter than a very loud trumpet. Volume is measured. Loudness is negotiated. It’s the cops who carry decibel meters and investigate the noise complaints. But officer…I’m not speaking about the dislocation of the sound and the sound source. Fidelity versus consistency. Legibility versus privacy. Guarantee versus negotiation. There is a way in which writing about an exhibition always feels like letting it down. As if language will always fail in this moment and the game is not to be left holding the bag when it does. Understanding the allegorical imperative of certain objects demands a particular double point of focus and language has limited resources for keeping things open. I am speaking about decision/determination/definition as it relates to indecision/indetermination/indefinition. It doesn’t neccesarily matter how things are called. It matters how they occupy the intervals that they seek to occupy. On the same video call between the same two European cities, I ask: “What do you want the text to do ?” “I trust you,” says A. “Sure,” I say, “ but what do you want the text to do ?” Very very quiet Very very loud Fidelity Consistency Suggestion Reality Repeatable Contingent Very very quiet Description Evidence Submission Appraisal Made with Others Made Alone Very very loud Provisional Pre-meditated Material Allegory Submission Withdrawal Provisional Permanent Present Elsewhere Documentary Comedy Occurence Photography Pause Ordinary Ordinary Multiple Unique Simultaneous Sequential Prescriptive Descriptive Credit Debt Certain Specific Private Communal Private On Display Content Vessel Space Floorplan Outside Closed Inside Inside Stasis Procession