Collective Actions

Exhibition proposal piece
‘Persistent silence’


Persistent 1 lasting or enduring tenaciously 2 constantly repeated or continued.

Silence 1 absence of sound 2 avoidance or absence of speaking or making a sound.

It is said that the only way to experience complete silence is upon death. My experience of silence has been a fleeting one- silence doesn’t seem persistent to me. When I first questioned silence I thought of that moment when there’s nothing in the air and you have to strain your ears to grasp any hint of a sound and usually one is found before long. We seem to be surrounded by noise. In the city there is always the constant buzz of life, in the countryside there are all the sounds of nature and even when you’re somewhere seemingly still and silent, like the desert, you’re still accompanied by the sound of your breathing.

I’m interested in trying to create and experience persistent silence, if it’s possible. This silent moment prolonged and intensified.

In my own work I’m currently engaging in turning internal memories and feelings into external images. For this project I want to experiment with a somewhat similar process. I want to engage in the experience of persistent silence. I intend to do this by using earplugs in a quiet place, at the dead of night, for a relatively long period of time. Whilst in this quite zone I intend to create visual images of this experience and the feeling that manifests within myself. I’m interested in using paint as my medium to recreate the feeling of my experience.

My reaction to this process will determine how many works I will create. I’m not going to allow my self to start painting until one hour has past and the silence has been felt. I will then start a work every hour on the hour for three hours, to mark the passing of this silent time. More paintings may be made if fragmentation or multiple feelings occur within a short space of time, it might be necessary to create many works to demonstrate all the angles. These works may overlap in the making. I intend to work on large paper or canvas as an open place of expression to allow the works to have physical involvement.

The interpretation of avoiding speaking and making noise will be utilised in my experiment by minimising my movement in my allocated space. I’m also interested in the possibility that this outward experience of persistent silence may create inner silence or peace. Alternatively, it may be a difficult experience, a deafening one; it may become noisier inside in reaction to this forced external silence.

The paintings will be the subjective evidence of this experiment and will hopefully portray the manifestation of persistent silence.

Brianna Bryson-Haynes