Time & Perspective Quote by Holly Near

Near is giving a quiet rebuke to the anxious, brand-conscious instinct to lock art into a recognizable shape before it’s even breathed. “Keeping space open” is studio talk and life talk at once: a reminder that the first job is to protect possibility. In a culture that rewards instantly legible “formats” (the three-minute single, the viral clip, the perfectly plotted memoir arc), she argues for lingering in the messy middle where the real stakes live: what you’re actually trying to say, and who you’re trying to reach.

The intent is practical, almost procedural. Don’t start by choosing the container; start by listening for the material. The subtext is also political, which fits Near’s long career in movement music. Forms can become gatekeepers. They signal belonging, training, marketability. Refusing to “choose a form” upfront is a way of refusing premature compliance, the artistic version of not letting institutions decide what counts as “serious” or “sellable.” It’s not anti-craft; it’s anti-constraint disguised as craft.

Letting “form take care of itself” sounds laissez-faire, but it’s closer to trust: trust that content, if it’s honest and specific, will demand its own shape. A protest song finds its chorus; a story finds its tempo; a community finds the room it needs. Near’s line is a permission slip for artists and organizers alike: stop performing certainty, and keep the space open long enough for something true to arrive.