What is a wall of silence? It is a constant theme amongst things I have found myself angsting over. I often worry if am I saying enough? what can I say? how do I say it?

It’s a funny metaphor, but very effective. A wall of silence is so very obvious (especially when someone else has set it up), and yet so hard to decipher, or to break through, or to understand.

How do you approach a wall of silence? I suppose it depends on the medium, and how you are interpreting this metaphor. I mean, one could use questions, set terms of inquiry, establish a relationship, you could do it physically, walk up to it, walk through it. I’d like to know how you know once you’ve gotten through a wall of silence, ie, at exactly what point do you know? Approaching with sound, images, visual cues, the five senses, varying levels of energy. What methodology do you use? A flippant sense of humour? A battering ram? How to engage?

How do you recognise your own walls of silence? Listening out for the unheard voices has been a popular and effective research question - especially in critical and cultural studies challenging dominant modes of historical practice, status quo etc. Sometimes walls of silence are built simply by default: as you build a bridge you also create the underneath of the bridge. There is a wall of silence here because all the action is over there.

Is it full or empty? Does the wall of silence obscure knowledge or contain it? Like an impassive trojan horse, bright tassels glittering in the wind? Or an echo of silent horror, of unspeakable acts. Can’t speak or won’t speak. But, is it always problematic?

It think it is only obvious when you are looking for an answer, or a response and you don’t get one. Or perhaps you don’t understand the response you got. But that’s not my whole conclusion.

This is something I would like to explore performance, or installation… (dare I say it?) even sculpture!