Partial Memorial

ii.

a ..vision(?):

recently went to a job interview at a gallery…upon entering the gallery a woman greeted me and warmly told me to let her know if i had any questions. i asked her if she was kate – kate who i had been corresponding with via email…

the woman was not kate, she was katherine – but assured me kate was on her way. a few minutes later kate walks in. she’s wearing a metal name plate necklace … the kind rarely seen on adults but popular among teenagers.

the necklace says ‘kate’ in silver block letters. my 13 year old sister has one, it says ‘chloe’ in gold cursive.

‘kate’ and ‘chloe’ are both common names… names that sell well.

kate leads me through the gallery, the walls are lined with boring photographs – which i ignore… eyes, instead, fixate on an immense sculpture taking shape before me in the center of the gallery.

its large and vibrating, coated in iron filings, and immeasurably dense. i imagine kate’s necklace slingshotting across the room and hitting the sculpture with war-weapon grace… the windows burst as hundreds of necklaces speed across the room and fuze with surface of the sculpture… in minutes, it bears multiples of every common name…paper clips, bolts, braces, watches, and other small metal objects.

The sculpture loses shape beneath the bulk of chains and trinkets. i imagine rolling the sculpture out flat and slicing through its dense, amalgamated surface. each strip a collection of material identities, gifts, purchases, pleasures, etc… kate’s necklace, chloe’s necklace, and the earrings, nipple rings, nose rings of a hundred thousand strangers…

(didn’t get the job)