Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Modern Approaches in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Shrouded Bells: The Hollow of Janine Antoni’s Unveiling
Jessica A. Wagner
ABSTRACT:
This paper analyses the notions of the hidden, the empty, and the hollow as places for discovery and contemplation that become in darkness, thereby unveiling the power of absence and its position within presence. By examining Janine Antoni’s Unveiling, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, I propose that feelings of freedom and elation take place in the withdrawn form that conceals the hidden existence of its non-human collaborators. Using the framework of Anne Dufourmantelle’s In Defense of Secrets (2021), I investigate the power of secrets in both the internal and external worlds, as embodied by Unveiling’s withdrawn body and its hidden reformation that becomes through this place of escape. Using Michel Serres’ concept of “Mist” from The Five Senses: A Philosophy of Mingled Bodies, I explore the hollow of Unveiling, as the area where darkness is transforming, mist obscures a body that formerly existed, and perception is changed to new ways of perceiving in the dark. In closing, I use John Cage’s Silence: Lectures and Writings (1973) to analyze the voices and worlds within emptiness. Cage advocates for a reformation of sounds and a focus on new listening, concluding that all noises have the potential to be music, animate within the hollow of a bell.
keywords: Freedom, elation, withdrawn form, disappearance, presence, absence