Pictured: “Written But Withheld" installed on Benj4min's studio wall.

Study for “Written But Withheld”

2025

Foamcore with matte giclée printed text, hand-applied redaction panel

8 × 28 inches (20.32 × 71.12 cm)

This study explores the material and compositional logic of “Written But Withheld,” a sculpture that memorializes an unsent text message: an intimate moment of emotional vulnerability and restraint.

It presents a single smartphone message in the familiar composition box, containing the typed but never delivered message:

“I miss you so much, [redacted]. I trust the year has been treating you well.”

The recipient’s name, though part of the text, is physically concealed beneath a raised white panel, creating a silent interruption where identity once existed. The proportions mirror a smartphone’s horizontal message field, while the send arrow — traditionally blue — is reimagined in the artist’s signature powder pink.

At its core, “Written But Withheld” reflects the tension between longing and self-protection, transforming the common act of not pressing “send” into a meditation on choice, absence, and the power of withholding.