Reel 04: The Absence of Spectacle

The Absence of Spectacle occupies a liminal space between presence and erasure, addressing lives that exist outside formal records. These presences oppressed by colonial and imperial violence and unmarked by graves or memorials, are suggested not through representation but through the interplay of projection and sound, creating an environment where absence acquires a tangible form.

The stage operates as a framework for perception rather than a site for narrative. Light brushes against dissolving black strokes, where forms arise and dissipate, avoiding the fixity of documentation. The rhythm of the slide projector punctuates the space, layered with the faint chime of inverted wine glasses. These elements, sparse and deliberate, generate a soundscape that evokes the precarious line between visibility and invisibility. The performer’s measured traversal from west to east mirrors Buddhist concepts of cyclical time, while the refrain, "no name," permeates the space as both an invocation and an acknowledgment of what remains unresolved.

Temporal linearity is subverted in the work. Each sound, each gesture folds history into a recurring present, allowing unrecorded lives to surface in the voids left by absent imagery. Here, projections function not as archives but as a doorway—spaces where the unseen might be glimpsed momentarily before retreating.

The Absence of Spectacle resists resolution. It reframes absence as a dynamic state, an ongoing interaction between memory and its limits. The work operates at the intersection of form and emotional resonance, constructing a shared space where we navigate the delicate interplay of what is present and what remains elusive.

2024

Performance Installation (projector, slides)
dimension variable
30 mins

back  to  Tetralogy of Absence