The Wind Spoke Nothing I Could Know
Jules Galbraith & Vivian Li
The Wind Spoke Nothing I Could Know places the viewer in worlds where our intuitive relation to our surroundings is troubled and turned back onto itself; here, we hover on the threshold between familiarity and estrangement, recognition and alienation, invitation and displacement, sensing and misunderstanding. Are we welcome? Are we wanted? Are we anywhere at all?
In an encounter with sheer place, which of us becomes sheer otherness?
These immersive scenes are at once naturalistic and uncanny; it shifts the frame from building worlds to meeting them. Sparsely populated with what we might conventionally understand as life, we nevertheless feel something–always approaching and always vanishing–alive. Intended as a durational and contemplative experience, the stillness of the landscapes reward patience and careful attention.
How do we encounter emptiness? How does nothing reveal itself?
As we confront the emptiness of these environments, we are forced to confront our own emptiness, the gaps and absences within ourselves that we often try to fill with distractions and noise. But by embracing stillness and silence, we can begin to see and hear things that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. We can learn to appreciate the beauty of emptiness, and discover that nothingness is not a void to be feared, but rather a space of possibility and potential.
The Wind Spoke Nothing I Could Know reminds us that the act of encountering a place is not passive, but rather an active process of discovery and interpretation. By engaging with these immersive scenes, we become co-creators of the world around us, shaping it with our perceptions and experiences. And in doing so, we come to realize that the boundaries between self and other, between inside and outside, are not fixed, but constantly shifting and evolving.
Jules Galbraith is a Montreal based artist and writer working across poetics, creative web development, audio-visual media, and editorial design. They are interested in para-academic, peer-to-peer networks of research & knowledge transmission. Jules is a longtime member of the Cyber Love Hotel, a community-oriented tech studio, and the founder of Amor Mundi (TBA 2023) an independent press focused on poetry, translation, and polemics. Their artistic interests are, among others, love, grief, and (non)being.
Vivian Li, also known as Special Devivery, is a China-born earth tiger, multidisciplinary sound artist, musician, and composer currently based in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal. Their artistic practice is deeply rooted in live performance, sound design, recording, and improvisation. With a solid foundation in classical training, a brief encounter with jazz, and an ongoing exploration of electroacoustic techniques, her work blends elements of these diverse musical systems. Their approach to creation is experimental, emphasizing slowness and exploration rather than seeking perfection. She values the artistic process as an experience in itself and believes that it can be a source of healing and inspiration for both creator and audience. Their artistic exploration relies heavily on intuition, seeking to create immersive and introspective environments that promote the values of softness, individuality, and health. Her works invite listeners to slow down, embrace imperfections and surprises along the way, and seek rest collectively as an act of entertainment.
