Vanilla

10'06"

Size variable

[EJAR Residency Programme 2024/25]
Curated and Presented by EJAR

Look.
In this space:
Objects for the fragmented testimony,
fragments misplaced.
Bodies perform what words cannot.
Screens flicker with what once was.
*
"Look, Vanilla" Noir says.
"Look, Noir" Vanilla says.
Noir knows that Vanilla hates that color, hates that flag.
Vanilla knows that Noir likes that window, likes that shadow.
*
Alter-ego without Freud’s shadow,
a phantom twin, simple dialectics akin.
Liberation becomes weight —
the mask that conceals ( ),
the mask that binds ( ).
*
"Why did you lift yourself up, Noir?"
"And why did you choke yourself up, Vanilla?"
*
Sartre’s No Exit:
No door besides the promised ones,
no escape from the circular mirror.
The gaze ricochets:
I see
you see
me seeing you.
*
"I see you Noir"
"I see you Vanilla"
"You see me Noir"
"You see me Vanilla"
*
Submission as mere choreography.
Don’t think, just
*
"Look, Vanilla"
"Look, Noir"
At the skin of things.
At the way we are permitted to see.
At the absence left behind.
And fill up the bubbles
that had already exploded
with whatever untold.
*
"Thank you for looking, Noir"
"Thank you for looking, Vanilla"
Thank you for being here.