“Absence” was a performed installation that manifested the paradox of distal intimacy through sound.

For sixteen months between 2011 and 2013, my husband Garrick and I lived apart, in Oakland, California and Brooklyn, New York, respectively.

During the week of our eight-year anniversary of being together (4/2/2013)—eight weeks before we reunited—Garrick made a series of eight one-hour recordings of the sound of his bedroom (one hour per day). These recordings were made during hours when he was alone in his bedroom in Brooklyn.

I overlaid these recordings onto two hours of reel tape. I installed the tape on the wall of my bedroom in Oakland for the last eight weeks of our separation (4/8/2013-6/8/2013). A tape reader head I made connected to an amplifier was also installed below the wall. Over the course of the eight-week period, I listened to the recordings through the amplifier by drawing the tape reader over the installed reel tape.