Terence Koh
For six weeks, eight hours a day, in complete silence, Terence made his way around a huge pillar of salt on his knees; for his performance “nothingtoodoo” at Mary Boone Gallery in New York City. Periodically pausing as he prostrated himself on the floor with the most beautiful Zen Spirit. Even when he went home at night, Terence remained in silence for the entire six weeks. I went to visit him at the gallery early one morning while he was performing to witness and photograph. For three hours I lay on the hard gallery floor, watching, listening to the silence, just he and I alone; I felt completely transported into another world.
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“Please wait outside the door for two minutes and then enter”, said Terence. He then disappeared. Entering the space completely void of light I felt embraced by the darkness. Making my way through the darkness I reached out my hands and felt a wall to guide me. A shaft of light coming from the end of the hallway drew me closer.
Slowly walking towards the light I entered a small unfurnished room with a window at one end. Some mud, a tree branch and a single white rose suspended on the windowsill, with the rose emerging on the other side.
In the silence I could hear footsteps patiently and slowly approaching. In a few moments Terence Koh appeared. Terence walked purposefully towards the window and knelt down in front of a small mound of earth with a stack of newspapers from all over the world, off to one side. Terence began to tear the newspapers into small shreds and place them in the center of the earth mound. Terence then lit a match and set the shredded newspapers on fire.
Focusing on the flames as each paper burned, Terence would add more. The headlines on the newspapers were the news of the day with stories about climate change and severe weather conditions, missiles and migrants, dropping economies and Covid. The intention is to meditate upon these stories as they burned releasing them to smoke and ashes with prayers of healing and hope.
The single white rose emerging from the windowsill to the outside world, held the space for love and peace.