Imagine how we are taught to tell others to be quiet when we are young, we say "shhhhhh"; this becomes paradoxical in the sense that by saying shush, we ourselves are adding to the noise. How then, do you manage to tell someone to be quiet without adding to that noise yourself? That is the question.

"A story without silence has no space or depth, nowhere for the reader to enter and create meaning.”

I can never tell the audience the meaning of a work better than their own interpretation of it, so I lean into that rather than forcing a narrative that may conflict with their own. 

“I speak my thoughts through their words, not mine.”

“I reveal definition through their perspective, not mine.”

“I shed light on their dark, not mine.”

As an artist whose brushstrokes are shadow and voice silence, you must aspire to become the abyssal black mirror.

“When you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” 

Every day we spend our conscious time actively thinking, sometimes to the point that we wish the thoughts would stop; If art is the antidote to consciousness then the basis of art is subsequently anti-thought, in other words silence. In a loud and drowning headspace, art can become the peace and quiet that brings 30 different voices down to one focused whisper.

“But modern art, Sontag argues, is as much a form of consciousness as an answer to our longing for anti-consciousness, speaking to what she calls “the mind’s need or capacity for self-estrangement”

“Art is no longer understood as consciousness expressing and therefore, implicitly, affirming itself. Art is not consciousness per se, but rather its antidote” 

Silence is only a concept in relation to its surroundings; therefore its interpretation does not need to be limited to literal and physical silence, but also form of speech, absence of action, or even refusal of conformity. 

“Silence” never ceases to imply its opposite and to depend on its presence: just as there can’t be “up” without “down” or “left” without “right,” so one must acknowledge a surrounding environment of sound or language in order to recognize silence…"

Silence is not only a relation between its surroundings but also by expectation, hence why all of silence’s figurative definitions can be derived from a difference or lack of one’s given expectations. The absence of action only becomes silence when the presence of action is expected. The refusal of conformity only becomes silence when you are expected to conform.

Paradoxically, the act of silence can become bolder in volume than an outright loud noise itself. If we are expecting something to exist, then its presence will not be noticed more than if it is absent instead. For example, if you are listening to a song and the lyrics are there you would never say, “Hey, the lyrics are here.” You would just continue on like normal. But if the song did have the lyrics missing the first thing you’d ask is, “Where are the lyrics?” or, “Oh this was the instrumental.” This example only works because it is what you expected as the norm, that a song with lyrics will actually play them when you listen to it (unless of course you are listening to the instrumental). The same way someone may say “You are really quiet today.” When they expect you to say something that you aren’t bringing up.

Modern-day art especially in the presence of social media is so noisy and loud that it is more important than ever, (and powerful) to be silent in your art compared to screaming in a world suffocated by loudness. 

“A whisper is louder than a shout.”

"Silence, when used effectively, is a color."

Silence within participation is to listen rather than to be the one speaking, this silence allows you to focus on learning and absorbing your surroundings rather than focusing solely on your worldview alone. That isn’t to say that speaking isn’t good at all, in fact it can be profoundly useful in reinforcing and bolstering the thoughts you have now; however, you cannot compile what you do not have, so we must learn to observe the world before we begin to construct our own. 

“The first thing philosophers have to do is learn to listen rather than talk.”

“when we’re doing the talking, we’re typically not doing a whole lot of listening, and often not a lot of learning either.”

“By learning to talk less and listen more, you can reframe your part of the conversation to be more about ‘learning’ than about ‘preaching.’”

Knowing when and when not to speak is as equally important as knowing when and when not to remain silent. There is a certain efficacy that can only be achieved through complexity within simplicity, not the other way around. Think quality over quantity, be conscious of what you speak and when you speak; minimize the amount of talk, and maximize the value of what you say. When you make each sentence, statement, and idea count, people will listen more than if you had rambled a slurry of words.

“Their speech is more concise and more relevant to the conversation at hand than those who speak more regularly.”

“When they do speak, what they say has more impact.”

There is never a true absolute silence within art, there will always be at least something said, even if it is spoken through the absence of what it should say. It is expected of art to give a message, therefore by showing no inherent message, you are in fact providing the very message you sought to withhold. This paradox culminates in the conclusion that to speak is to say nothing and to say nothing is to speak. 

Utter silence is to remove yourself from the world, you will never be perceived nor heard. Just as the premature applause of a song which remains silent for too long is mistaken for being over; what, if at all, that existed of you will seem ended.

You will never know the things that you don’t know exist, therefore you cannot be curious about the concepts of which you have not even perceived to be a thing. You can be curious about the unknown because you acknowledge that there are things that you do not know of; however, you will never know what exists within the unknown without being presented with its existence in the first place. This is why you must present to the world the existence of yourself before you can subsequently remove yourself from it. You must be born before you can die. 

You must maintain the smallest amount of volume for the expectation of getting louder to exist; you must create the surrounding silence to have the expectation of noise, and there in creating the parameters for your art to reveal its message. 

—Tommi Abueg

— References & Full Quotes — 

 —  Thank you sincerely for reading. —

The Importance of Silence in Art

The Role Of Silence In Music

The Aesthetic of Silence

Talk less, listen more

“Whoever battles monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself. And when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)

"Art is no longer understood as consciousness expressing and therefore, implicitly, affirming itself. Art is not consciousness per se, but rather its antidote — evolved from within consciousness itself." (Susan Sontag)

“Silence” never ceases to imply its opposite and to depend on its presence: just as there can’t be “up” without “down” or “left” without “right,” so one must acknowledge a surrounding environment of sound or language in order to recognize silence…" "Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech and an element in a dialogue." (Susan Sontag)

“The first thing philosophers have to do is learn to listen rather than talk.” (Jonathan Wolff)