The Rest is Silence
2011, book, cassette tapes, and audio installation
The Rest is Silence is initiated from the book, "Works of Spinoza".
"Works of Spinoza" consists of major works of Spinoza including A Theologico-Political Treatise, Tractatus Politicus, On the Improvement of the Understanding, The Ethics, and Spinoza’s correspondences with contemporary intellectuals.
I assigned myself a task not only to read but also to write the entire book. Instead of producing another copy of the book, I wrote the text directly on the very book with HB pencil while I was reading it aloud at the speed of my writing it. I recorded my reading on cassette tapes. Each 90 minute cassette tape contains my reading of about 4 pages of the book. Once finished with one tape, I labeled the tape with the words or phrase that I was able to recall in the section of the book that was recorded in the tape. There are about 190 cassette tapes arranged and played in order of the pages of the book.
In The Rest is Silence, the hand written text of mine interferes with the printed text of the book, the act of writing intervenes in the act of reading in the stretched time, and my voice overlaps Spinoza's.
I assigned myself a task not only to read but also to write the entire book. Instead of producing another copy of the book, I wrote the text directly on the very book with HB pencil while I was reading it aloud at the speed of my writing it. I recorded my reading on cassette tapes. Each 90 minute cassette tape contains my reading of about 4 pages of the book. Once finished with one tape, I labeled the tape with the words or phrase that I was able to recall in the section of the book that was recorded in the tape. There are about 190 cassette tapes arranged and played in order of the pages of the book.
In The Rest is Silence, the hand written text of mine interferes with the printed text of the book, the act of writing intervenes in the act of reading in the stretched time, and my voice overlaps Spinoza's.