Sculptures spark rumours while written fragments mimic institutional records. Together they create an ecosystem where truth shapeshifts in deciding what the heinous incident really was.
Hollow Bitching
writing and sculpture
2026
writing and sculpture
2026
I. Objects Received
Delivery Log (Building Reception, 08:57)
One (1) cardboard box is delivered. No sender. No return address. No signature required. Marked “FRAGILE: CONTENTS MAY VARY.”
Extract from Committee Minutes, Draft (Unapproved)
09:12: The cardboard box is delivered to the meeting room. The secretary opens it with the office scissors (blunt). Contents: six papier‑mâché dog masks, translucent, slightly damp as if recently breathed through.
Secretary’s Private Annotation (Not for Circulation)
When I lifted the second mask, it felt warm. As if someone had just taken it off. I don’t know how to minute that without sounding insane.
CHAIRPERSON: Are these the items in question?
ARTIST LIAISON: Question of what?
CHAIRPERSON: You know. The matter we’re here to address.
SECRETARY: We haven’t actually defined the matter yet.
ARTIST LIAISON: So how can these items be important?
CHAIRPERSON: They were delivered to us. That implies an intent to connect with us.
ARTIST LIAISON: People deliver all sorts of things. Last week we got a box of used condoms shoved through the letterbox. Should we implicate them too?
SECRETARY: Those were for the youth theatre.
ARTIST LIAISON: Were they?
CHAIRPERSON: This is different. These objects were clearly sent to us.
SECRETARY: Do we know that?
ARTIST LIAISON: Not necessarily. Sometimes we get boxes for temporary storage. Charity donations or mistaking us for the tip.
CHAIRPERSON: It had our committee name on it.
ARTIST LIAISON: Did it? Because the label was unclear.
SECRETARY: It was definitely smudged.
CHAIRPERSON: Regardless, they’re here now.
ARTIST LIAISON: That’s not the same as being relevant.
SECRETARY: Should we check if they match the description?
CHAIRPERSON: What description?
SECRETARY: We don’t have a description.
CHAIRPERSON: We must have something in the documentation.
SECRETARY: The documentation is mostly blank incident forms which someone didn’t have time to fill out.
CHAIRPERSON: So are these the items in question?
Unvoiced Testimonial - Community Representative
The masks don’t sit like normal objects. They feel like evidence, offerings, or accusations — as if they arrived with an agenda. Their see‑ through surfaces catch the fluorescent light the wrong way, turning it into a glare. No one knows who sent them, or what they’re supposed to prove, and that kind of originless object is always trouble. The moment the box opened, the room shifted: people grew tense and brittle. The spaces the masks inhabit are charged unpleasantly.
II. The Scandal (Version 3.2)
Anonymous Letter received by the Committee
You must already know about the incident at the after party. Some are insisting the masks were used only in the programmed performance you commissioned, but several witnesses claim the masks reappeared later at a private, off‑record gathering in a state where something “inappropriate” seems to have happened.
Social Media Thread (Archived):
It was a harmless workshop.
It was an initiation ritual.
It was a drunken mess.
It never happened.
It happened long into the night.
Post it Note on the Secretary’s Desk:
Each retelling contradicts the last.
Recollections warp depending on who’s telling them and who’s listening. The paperwork collapses under scrutiny, but rumours at least stay consistent in their inconsistency.
III. The Committee Convenes
Minutes, Version 2 (Heavily Redacted)
Purpose of meeting: to investigate
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matter? ed: 1 4 lin
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14 lines][Re d Outcome: unclear.
Committee Members:
CHAIRPERSON — worships procedure, collects procedural manuals in a vast library.
SECRETARY — takes minutes that drift into metaphor, emotion and occasionally prophecy.
COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVE — previously worked as an unofficial “interpreter”. Believes the masks are cursed; also believes curses are a form of community feedback.
ARTIST LIAISON — defends the artists while leaking gossip like a sieve.
Mandate: Ambiguity (Unresolved)
The committee’s job is unclear:
Are we investigating misconduct?
Judging artistic merit?
Controlling a rampaging narrative?
Or just gossiping under the guise of governance?
IV. Object Description
Condition Report: Mask.3
Paper‑mâché. Slight tear along the snout. Smells faintly of vodka. When held to the light, it reveals overlapping fingerprints.
Witness Statement: Mask.4 - Community Representative
I saw it blink!
Emotional Intelligence Assessment (Unofficial): Mask.6 Secretary’s Notes (unfiled):
This mask doesn’t reveal truth in any measurable sense.
But a different intelligence entirely: relational, volatile, socially magnetic. It doesn’t exist on a forensic, factual plane.
V. Testimonies (Contradictory)
Overheard in the Municipal Corridor (Unofficial Transcript)
Voice A: I heard the masks were used in a ritual.
Voice B: Noo, it was a rehearsal.
Voice A: Apparently the dog masks were part of
a debauched game that escalated horrifically.
Voice B: What game?
Internet Search History (Secretary’s Computer)
Gossip: (noun) Soft power. Social policing. Collective storytelling
Testimony A - Artist Liaison
I wasn’t present for the main incident, or at least not in any way that would make my account important for the records.
I observed very little.
The performance appeared mostly improvised, though certain moments felt prepared.
Regarding the gathering afterwards, my understanding is that it was intended to be private, so I cannot verify who was formally invited
- or if it happened at all.
VI. Collapse of the Narrative
Newspaper Clipping (Misquoted)
“The Committee has reached a conclusion.”
Feedback Evaluation - Community Representative
Public outrage grows.
People demand accountability for something no one can define.
The object of blame remains undefined,
yet the expectation of consequences continues to rise.
In such conditions, the outrage has become self‑sustaining,
and accountability has become symbolic
rather than a rational response.
Leaked Committee Email
CHAIRPERSON: We must control the narrative.
SECRETARY: Which narrative?
CHAIRPERSON: The correct one.
Public Statement (Draft, Never Released)
The Committee has reached no conclusion because the matter has no centre. It is a cloud of interpretation orbiting a void that refuses to stay empty.
Internal Memo (Deleted)
The masks have now been sighted in three locations simultaneously. This is either a clerical error or a metaphysical one.
Please investigate.
Secretary’s Notebook
Everyone is performing certainty. It’s exhausting.
We need to sit with not‑knowing but no one wants to be the first to stop pretending.