VA505 Addressing Studio Creative Practice | Fall '21

Max Picard, indicates “Silence contains everything in itself. It is not waiting for anything, it is always wholly present in itself and it completely fills out the space in which it appears.”(1). It is not an absolute absence. Even in an anechoic chamber, there are at least two sounds: one’s heartbeat and the coursing of the blood. Silence has been called “rest”: music’s in-between space. Parallel to the idea of “ma” in Japanese music, Debussy wrote that the music is not in the notes, but in the spaces between them.  Before Western notation system, the length of these silences were often dictated by spaces. When  groups of monks chanted in a chapel, they inserted a pause determined by the acoustics of the chapel to prevent the next line from getting mixed by the last one’s resonance trail. But these pauses also created a meditative space and provided “the unity of the monastery breathing and singing together.”(2)  In much of early Baroque music, in a literal way, silence often depict s

 Wang Meng (1308-1385), Yuan Dynasty: Thatched Cottage in Autumn Mountains   Edouard Vuillard , The Dressmaker (1895)  Agnes Martin, Falling Blue (1963) Although, in Western art canon, we come across with expressions of silence in mostly abstract paintings (e.g. Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin, Etel Adnan), the roots of these ideas lie in mysticism and spirituality of the East. Traces of silence go back to Chinese paintings under the influence of Zen Buddhism and Taoism beginning around the 8th century. In Chinese culture, it was common and acceptable to retreat from society by escaping to mountains in chaotic time periods. Mostly in reclusion, monks and scholars painted tiny human figures, small sheds contrasting to majestic mountains, rivers and mist in a monochromatic way, affected by the ideas of Taoism which often underlines the power of silence (1). These paintings were not realistic depictions of landscapes, they were landscapes of the mind in a meditative or contemplative state. 

Iconography of silence starts with Harpocrates -Ancient Greek God of silence- that is represented with his finger close to his mouth. This endured to be the gesture of silence. In Judeo-Christian creation myth, the cosmos starts with the word of God and silence predates everything (1).  Being an important part of spirituality, silence is a must to connect with God and utilized as a self-discipline method. Silent retreat is a common practice in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism and Sufism for deepening insight. Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad are often depicted as having their revelations while seeking silence in the religious narratives. Monasteries have the tradition of ars meditandi (contemplation) in silence since antiquity which was transferred into a secular, personal discipline in the 16th century. In ancient ethics, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius praise meditative silence for focus. In Christianity, oratio interior (inner prayer) is about finding inner silence to be able to hear

keywords: silence, temporal space, being, self, reflection, resistance, communication, creation, disruption, vague In my search, I came across two famous pieces that really center the concept of silence. One of them is John Cage’s 4’ 33’’ which is actually 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. Second one is Marina Abromovich’s “The Artist is Present” which she sits in silence and faces with audience one-to-one. In these examples, a period of silence has a presence providing a meditative space of self-reflection just like in Zen Buddhism and it is not perceived as absence of “voice” contrasting the conceptualization of feminism. In that context, “voice” belongs to the powerful and others have to break their silence and claim their voice. Instead of repeating this social structure in the attempt of reversing it, there have been the ones that choose “to be in silence”, further “to share their silence” as Fivush argues (Fivush, 2009). This silence can be understood as distancing to fixed d

keywords: silence, temporal space, disruption, being, self, neutral “...Any fixed claim on realness, especially when it is tied to an identity, also has a finger in psychosis. -Quoting Lacan- ‘If a man who thinks he is a king is mad, a king who is a king is no less so.’” * There has always been an obsession to define things-but also “selves”. After the rise of identity politics, not anyone excluded by power but some groups discriminated in terms of gender, sexuality, race and class have been trying to find different strategies to fight against the power and injustice and one of them has been gaining “visibility” through representations and claiming new definitions. These are very helpful to the people in the discovery of identity and its expression; however, there is a certain point that visibility and existing representations are restrictive, and further tricky in the aspect of surveillance. Identity itself is structured by power and “self” is categorized in definitive boxes. At this

keywords: silence, temporal, space, fluctuation, vague, neutral, being, self-portrait, break, norm, intimacy .. After searching different combinations of my keywords in Google, the result was not so rich and on point but it made me go over the ideas about silence most of them I’m familiar with. So, I am going to start with a cloud of descriptions of silence, some of them are very rigid, some are fluid. Silence is the manner of the “powerful, serious and mysterious man/cool girl” trope.  Silence is something lacking, uncomfortable to many -something to fill in. Silence is a negative space ( Ma as a Japanese concept). A void. Silence is a break in time. A break in music. A chance to hear other voices.  Silence is a state of nothingness and stillness conceptualized in Zen Buddhism thought. Silence is “absence” and “to be silent” is conceptualized as “to be silenced”, “to be not given voice to” in feminist theory . So, in this context, “voice” belongs to the powerful and if you are a m