ZEROMISS
(museum-label)
Screen print on uncoated stock, ink on paper
Wellington, New Zealand, c. 2026
Artist unknown
The mouth is the only white in the composition.
Curators initially catalogued this as a portrait
but the subject's estate requested reclassification.
It is now filed under Weather Events.
The three screens behind the figure have been
analysed under magnification. Each contains
the same image at different exposures:
a handshake dissolving into static.
The viridian stripe was added last.
Infrared imaging confirms it was painted
in a single gesture, without hesitation,
over the dried surface of everything else.
Acquired 2026. Donor wishes to remain.
Not anonymous. Just: to remain.
A mouth open in the shape of an involuntary oh.Not a scream. Not a threat. A vowel.The censor looked at it anywayand said: not today.Whose mouth passes, exactly?