071 | I quit. But only to continue

Check this. You know how I made those circles for The Silence Around, right? Do you also know I had the honour of displaying those for over 5 months in the local library? That’s quite a long time!

The original plan was to leave them there until December 31st 2020 and then move them to a new location. And a new location after that. Covid 19 changed that swiftly, resulting in the installations still being in their second location as I’m writing this ¹.

Well, in hindsight I’m glad the installations were safely stored within the confines of the prestigious building that is our library during these lockdowns. It bought me some time to figure out what to do with them next. Nevertheless, it’s a shame the installations won’t get to see many other locations too. Sort of.

As local restrictions are still very much in place, conquering a spot within other cultural facilities is no easy feat. All of them have backlogs of work they want to expose and regular confidants they work with to accomplish this. Me, as a new guy, does not fit into their schedules immediately. Though I’m entirely making this up myself right now. That’s not the end of it though.

You see, a while ago² I was totally fine keeping the installations for a while until I could find further use for them. I had it all figured out. I arranged a storage facility, transport and somebody to help move the units (thanks dad). It would take some effort, and quite a bit of cash, but I would take on the challenge. I was absolutely ready to move The Silence Around for safekeeping until they could be displayed somewhere again. Or perhaps use the installations themselves for another purpose.

Until the transportation fell through.

It was a minor setback, I admit, but the last one I needed. To be perfectly honest, I love how the units look (just peek at the photos on the project page) and I’m sure they would’ve come in handy sometime in the future again.

It’s just that they are too damn big to conveniently move around.

The idea for the shape and size are entirely my own (with a little consulting here and there, sure) and they served their purpose very well. They’re quite impressive to look at and stepping inside really provides you with the immersive experience I was hoping for. Everything was perfect.

Until I tried to move them.

They will not fit, in any way, through a regular door. You need at least double doors, or garage doors, or something that’s wider than a meter to move them in and out of buildings. This turned out to be a major inconvenience as I now had no way to store these units myself. I needed a third party involved just to keep them around. I hate needing third parties. My god, I so badly want to be able to do everything myself. I hate being dependent on other people, facilities, companies. It’s always so much more effort to get something done if you can’t just do it yourself.

I just couldn’t do it anymore. If I was being honest with myself, these installations have been a headache ever since I realised I couldn’t handle them myself. When I heard the transportation I had in mind wasn’t an option anymore, I gave up. I called the people who helped me built the installations and asked if they liked the raw material back (it’s good quality steel so why throw that out?). Thankfully they accepted.

So I quit working on The Silence Around. But only to continue working other projects. I’m currently in the process of laying out my B&W Squares project, which is a good exercise in bookmaking, and I plan to work on more print products in the future. I’m sure I’ll build another installation someday in the future, but only one that folds down to fit in my home or when I’m more prepared in general.

Lesson learned, it was awesome, onto the next one.