Post 4: The space between two sentences

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This brick between two pegs (I think I [one] would call these pegs?) on the ground reminds me of the space between two sentences. The peg on the left is the period that ends one sentence, the brick is the blank space (spacebar click) that follows, and the peg on the right is the capital letter that begins the next sentence.

I like the idea of the brick’s role as the empty space between sentences in contrast to it being the most prominent visual element of this small scene. In addition to the familiar capacities of “brick” as an object and “brick” as a word, this scenario creates another possible identity: “brick” as an empty moment. I always enjoy things that have a relationship to emptiness, nothingness, blankness, or hiddenness; maybe I especially enjoy absence qualities like these when they’re applied to objects, since they get paired with the immediate presence that objects have (as in: absence is most interesting when it is working alongside presence).

This is also reminding me of something I recently and excitedly came across: poet-person Ferreira Gullar’s essay called “Theory of The Non-Object.” He says:

The non-object is not an anti-object but a special object though which a synthesis of sensorial and mental experiences is intended to take place. It is a transparent body in terms of phenomenological knowledge: while being entirely perceptible it leaves no trace. It is a pure appearance.1


“transparent body”? “entirely perceptible”? “leaves no trace”? This feels like a version of “it is what it is” where the first “it is” and the second “it is” cancel each other out. (Seems right that this would leave only the “what” remaining.)

Three maybes:

-To refer to an object as “an object” is to double its meaning?

-To refer to an object as "an object” is to negate its meaning?

-The non-brick?

 


Notes:1Ferreira, Gullar, "Theory of The Non-Object," trans. Michael Asbury (London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 2005), 1.
Bibliography: Gullar, Ferreira. "Theory of The Non-Object." Translated by Michael Asbury. London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 2005.

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