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First Forgive the Silence

 

Thirteen hour durational performance, Boya Quarry. 2015

 

An act of tender gratitude, release and homage, Jacobus’s series of works stand as a heartfelt farewell.

A letter, two images and a censored book (held dearly by the artist for the last decade)  all document a durational performance undertaken at a site that once bred a reverence for the uneasy relationship upheld by the self and the perpetual abyss it finds itself surrounded in.

 

Reflecting upon his own experience as a teenager with the site (Boya Quarry), and the role it played in shaping a humble reverence for his own interaction with the landscape, Jacobus blends and reconciles it with the long standing impact a certain author had in extending and transforming this relationship.

 

Engaged in the durational act of censoring a complete novel in one sitting, each sentence is ultimately silenced. By refusing each individual word, first the word in its isolation must be acknowledged. The constant action and concentration the performance demands ultimately stunts the flow of reading and interpretation, and thus subsequently closes off the immediate surroundings form exerting influence.

A new space is entered into where words and their meaning no longer exist: instead all that is left is the spaces inbetween, the vital silences.

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