There was a room in our grandparents’ house that was called the cold attic. There, dust danced in a dim daylight and the walls and floors were filled with objects accumulated over time. We used to explore this place with my little sister as the wonderworld of the past. We dug out old exotic treasures and put on grandma’s old dresses to play.
Today, in these abandoned houses I enter, memories from the past emanate through peeling layers of walls, bedraggled furniture, the dust on the floor, and the smell. I walk through rooms and I observe. The windows upstairs creek as the wind blows through their frames. A ray of light crosses one of the rooms. The prowling layers of time make my wind restless. Downstairs everything remains dark.
In One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Gabriel García Márquez describes a town called Macondo. The long time span and surreal happenings in the book leave the reader wondering if Macondo was really ever real. The body of work Such is the Silence offers reflections on existence, memory and the passing of time. Without any prior connection to these houses, there is a contradiction when I enter the space. I want to illuminate these abandoned spaces with life. Such is the Silence depicts a possible fictive world where, as an imagined character I am able to place myself inside the memory of these houses and imagine the changing generations and life as in Márquez’s book. Through my presence, these rooms become alive again.
