The Collection Of Silence

In the Spring of 2009 I was invited by several Dia curators to think about doing an outdoor performance some summer night in June and with this in mind we went up to the Hispanic Society, Dia’s collaborator in New York installations and we looked at Zoe Leonard’s show which was photographs of a lot of stuff and signage – kind of about how stuff moves around the world I thought and how we name it and the look of that naming too. Zoe also went into the Hispanic Society’s permanent collection and pulled out these odd sailor’s maps called derroteros which were handmade drawings of the shape of the landscape as you approached it by boat. They looked like funky little Ellsworth Kellys to me. I marveled. As the conversation continued as the curators (Karen Kelly, Kristin Poor and Barbara Schroeder) and I wandered inside and outside the museum they mentioned that the acoustics could be lousy as it often is outdoors I thought and I began to think idly about what kind of collection of things (still thinking about Zoe’s work) I could bring to a summer performance. I put all the elements together and elected to do a collection of silence which seemed like a real gift by a poet, or masses of poets to the world. What kind of pile of silent things could I make after all. I invited Charles Bernstein, Rachel Zolf, Monica de la Torre, Tim Liu and Stephanie Gray to invite four other poets. A list of all participants is in the invite link below. I invited the Village Zendo to sit. I invited choreographer Christine Elmo to make a moving dance piece to silently notate the plaza outside the museum. I invited diva Juliana Snapper to not sing and ultimately John Kelly did the honors. I invited a group of artists known as F-A-R-T-S – I think Fine Artists err something. I invited the schoolchildren of PS4 orchestrated by poet and orchestrator Christine Hou to facilitate the poetry club of PS4 to write a poem about silence and perform it – silently for the event. Is that it?

Yes, I think so. You’ll see some pictures below of this fine event and links to the Harriet posts I made before and after the event.

I think there should be more silent readings and events all over the world now.