There… Two… And white… That yes… With … Two… Angle fixed… Shift… There as…
Begin.
Two white walls. Meet. Converge. Until they meet. Twenty-nine thirty-five degrees. Angle, adjust. Between twenty-nine and thirty-five degrees. Not vary. Not varied, fixed. Next. Start, end, walls, boundaries. Self-imposed. Walls being walls. Planes, fixed, definitive. Finite and invariable. Rest upon, hardwood. All directions . . .
Again.
It is confused. Begin again.
Begin. Walls. White. Bases equal, eighteen feet. Height, ten to twelve feet. Be precise. Height, eleven feet six inches, both equal. Corresponding sides equal, perpendicular at corners. Colour, white. Said that. On. Walls. Rectangular. Two. Both equal. Identical. Eighteen feet by eleven feet five no six inches. Base to height. Approximate proportion of three to two. Slightly less. No, slightly more. Yes. Proportion slightly more than three to two, base to height. Unimportant. On. Walls, white, converge. Intersect. Angle of intersection not more than thirty-five degrees. There. Not less than twenty-nine degrees. There. Angle, however, is fixed. Invariable. It remains constant, at a fixed measurement, between twenty-nine and thirty-five degrees. Wherever. Point of observation. Such that angle of intersection is furthest away from that which observes. Point at base, say B, and point on high, say H, of line of intersection, say I are equidistant from point of observation, say O. Therefore, triangle, imaginary, formed by lines OB, OH, and I or BH, I being equally represented by BH. Triangle OBH is thus best construed as an isosceles triangle, sides OB and OH equal. Or so apparent. Forgot. O, point of observation, is at a distance from the space, triangular, enclosed by these two white walls. Said triangle being imaginary, there being only two walls. Third side, that closest to O, imagined. Implied by termination of walls as they diverge from I. This third side, so imagined, bisects then, the distance between O and the median point of BH, namely that which bisects I in two equal portions. This then creates a form of regular symmetry, two sides being imagined, All imagined. Namely a parallelogram. A balanced symmetry, comfortable like that of. Strike. Continue. From here then, at O, we rest. Observe the space, artificial, created by the converging and intersection of two white walls. On. Base needed. Or so imagined. The base then. Hardwood. Plain, unfinished. Extending beyond walls in all directions. Limit unknown. Base stretches itself into darkness beyond. Beyond what. Beyond the region lit by perception. Of what dimensions. Unknown. A region containing the walls and the space contained, or more specifically, defined by them. A region extending beyond the walls. Surrounding the walls. With no definite limit. Diminishing until the floor-plane, base, hardwood, vanishes. Succumbs to darkness. Or so assumed. Nonetheless, no longer perceived. Height of illuminated space. Say, five feet above height of walls. Eleven feet five no six inches plus a further five feet, therefore, sixteen feet six inches. Depth. Three feet below base. Total, nineteen feet six inches. What below. Nothing. Darkness. With naught to reflect how then illuminated. Perceived. Darkness perceived. Source of illumination. That which perceives. From which point. O for example. No. None. That which is perceived, is illuminated. Although this, too, has limits. Not all being capable of being perceived. Therefore, darkness may be observed. Up to a point. It too has limits. One may only see the face of ignorance. I stray. Return and point. There. A figure has entered the scene. Appeared from beyond, in the darkness. A figure heretofore unseen. Now seen, but dimly. From here. No. Not from here. From here all can be observed. Instead. In this light. In this light, although naked, sex unknown. Male or female. Unknown. Either. Or other. Dimly lit. A figure now perceived. From out the darkness. Viewed from the side and slightly behind. Cannot see their face or sex. Cannot identify the figure in any way. Other than pale, soft. Observe the figure as they approach the walls. The feet that do not leave the floor. The hands limp at the sides. With head bent they shuffle away and toward the space of the walls. The head hanging down. Chin in chest. Shoulders sloped. Back stooped. Knees slightly bent. Arms limp and stiff. One foot. Then the other. Sliding. Shuffling. Rocking. Slightly swaying. Stiff limp swaying, slight, from side to side. One foot to the other. Slight shift, as one foot a little ahead of the other. A slight bit forward. One sluggish shuffle at a time. So that if we blink, no longer perceive. They have not moved. Have not appeared to have moved. To have advanced in that period of time. But advance they do. However minutely. However imperceptibly. A dim pale figure. Propelled forward. Toward a dim white space. Enclosed by two identical white walls. Walls which meet to make a less than corner. On a hardwood floor. A shuffling figure dimly approaches. From out the darkness. Into the darkly lit. Head bent. Pale stiff limp. Barely seen. Shuffle. Shift. Toward a corner. Perceived.
Paris, March 20-22 1989