DUMBSTRUCK
The artist tries to hold a space open, holds back from giving explanation or account, withholds from making sense. Un. Un. Un. Un. Un. Said as a sacred mantra — an invocation of emptiness, ritual practice for clearing the ground or for emptying things out. Un. Un. Un. Un. Un. Said as empty utterance, a string of meaningless half-words as in blah blah blah. Said as a hesitation marker, the sounding of the momentary pause to think within speaking as in um, uh, er, ah. Saying nothing yet holding the space open, biding one’s time. Un. Un. Un. Un. Un. Deep abyss of unmeaning, the profound encounter with an absence of sense. Dumbstruck — a loss of speech through astonishment or surprise, mouth agape, wide in wonder. Eh — an exclamation of doubt, even sorrow. Oh — emotional interjection expressing fear and admiration. Agape — a Greco-Christian term referring to the highest love. Un. Un. Un. Un. Un. A space filled with nothing, like an empty cartouche. The empty cartouche, its oval gap like an open mouth, gaping. Language solidifies, becoming object-like, becoming sculptural. Blocking the way, both empty and full. Occlusion — a blockage or stoppage that prevents anything from passing through. To occlude — to stop up, close off or otherwise cover over. To cover up or over can protect and conceal, shelter and shroud. Obstructive, still the most tender of interventions, for the act of covering intrigues. Intrigue — from intricare, meaning to entangle; perplex, as well as to embarrass. Embarrass — to throw into doubt; literally to block or bar, to make something or someone feel awkward. Yet here, not through lack of sensitivity or tact, rather through mutual awkwardness an intimate experience of shared vulnerability, the heightened possibility of empathetic encounter.
From Emma Cocker, How Do You Do? (Nottingham: Beam Editions, 2023)