Dashes out of the Room

+8.5" x 11", textured paper & OHP film. Respective Intersectional keywords shared with the six project participants. Transcriptions written in dashes and dots. The participants’ string figure inventions. 2022-ongoing.

+Bibi: 𝑫𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒐𝒎 was deeply inspired by Constructing Panic: The Discourse of Agoraphobia by Lisa Capps and Elinor Ochs.


Dashes out of the Room is one of the several process-based components created for Proposition 3: String Figure (2022). Dashes out of the Room is the body of transcription poems composed of intersectional keywords that swirled up between the conversations I had with the six friends, dashes and dots. Dashes and dots are the vessels that I can go back to the moments of the conversations where a lot of subtle, peripheral, fleeting and ephemeral gestures and utterances were made and shared.

Each set of Intersectional Sentences contains emotional emergence and flows between the friends and me, pauses and hesitancy when the friends and I recalled something related to our respective traumas or tough times during the conversations, breathing to ourselves to grasp bravery to be open-minded and more sharing with one another. When I read them, I am drawn back to the moments of having caring conversations with them as if those ephemeral moments are being revived. All of our subtle, peripheral and fleeting utterances are there, remaining alive, unfolding concurrently with our present troubles, concerns, and anxiety that have been shared between us.

In short, the work contains: (1) six sets of string figure inventions by the participants, (2) transcriptions of Intersectional Sentences written in dashes and dots and (3) Glossary.