The Samuel Beckett exhibit at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art draws your notice from rooms away. While I was taking in the Michaël Borremans exhibit when I heard a woman’s voice. My daughter, being a curious ten year couldn’t resist going in search of the woman. Following along like a good parent (or puppy) I entered a completely dark room filled with words and a woman’s lips. Fumbling in the dark I found a bench. With my daughter seated next to me we tried to make sense of the words coming from the lips in front of us.
From moment one on the bench I was overwhelmed by the verbal cacophony washing over me. Giving up on the audio component I began looking at the only thing in the room I could see. The lips. On what has to be a screen of some sort a woman’s mouth is visible. Her painted black skin forces your attention on her mouth. That narrow focus seems to in turn force the viewer to focus on the words. As I stared at the mouth on the screen I began to subconsciously listen to the words.
The woman’s words seem endless. She seems to continually mull over the same event or idea. She seems excited or nervous, like a woman in shock after a traumatic event. Sitting next to my daughter I am reminded of a child caught doing something they shouldn’t be. The words fall from the the woman’s lips in torrents.
The title of the exhibit is “Not I.” I find upon leaving that the Beckett’s piece is about a traumatic event and the loss of self. My daughter was certain all the words were gibberish. In a way she was right. That’s how traumatized people sound. They speak gibberish because talking about the event is too fresh. They have not had time to organize their thoughts into a coherent story. By isolating the mouth, from even the flesh surrounding it, Beckett forces the viewer to listen to the words. However, by giving us at least the mouth of the woman, we know the words to be more than simply noise. We as viewers listen and strive to understand. We know this is human story and whether it be by sympathy or voyeurism we are frozen in place as we strive to understand.
