The Gray Pledge: Rahab Walking Through the Silence of Light

“A pledge is a promise that can’t be spoken aloud.”
That’s what it felt like Rahab was saying, even without words. In the video, Rahab walks through the city in silence, and through her movement alone, she reminds us of those quiet, inner vows we’ve made to ourselves.

RIRUKA’s latest video piece, The Gray Pledge, explores the delicate space between hope and despair, memory and forgetting, silence and outcry—all expressed through shades of gray.
Its protagonist is Rahab—a female spy and the central figure of the Punkaholic Girls—a woman swept through the shadows of a chaotic world.

There are no words in this film. Yet it overflows with emotion.

🎥 Watch the video The Gray Pledge

There are no words in this film. Yet it overflows with emotion.

■ What Does Gray Mean?

In color theory, gray is the quiet aftermath of contrasts. It’s the middle of black and white—but also neither.
The world Rahab walks through in this film is saturated with gray. Past and present blur together, and feelings—of joy and sorrow, of fear and comfort—drift through the air without a place to land.

Her gaze is direct, yet vacant. She walks among the city lights, but she’s completely alone. Even with music playing, silence is all we hear.

■ Rahab: The Wordless Protagonist

Rahab says nothing in this work. But her silence is louder than speech.
The way she lowers her eyes, the subtle pause of her hand, the wind brushing her hair—every motion whispers her inner voice.

Though she may have abandoned emotion as a spy, it feels as though she holds onto a single vow. Not to a nation or a lover, but a quiet promise to continue believing in her own existence.

■ The Texture of “The Gray Pledge”

The soundtrack in this piece isn’t just background music—it’s Rahab’s internal voice.
It’s transparent, slightly cold, somewhere between noise and melody. It holds both fragility and strength, instability and beauty.
It’s like Rahab herself.

The music floods the canvas, and the canvas gently holds the music in return. Their relationship echoes how images and words work in ZINEs.

■ What Is a “Pledge”?

In this work, a “pledge” isn’t made to someone else.
Rather, it’s a promise never spoken—a decision made in the quiet of one’s heart.

As Rahab walks, small glimmers of light begin to bleed into the gray.
Maybe they are her tears. Maybe they’re prayers she’s whispered to herself.

■ ZINE Interpretation of “The Gray Pledge”

A ZINE is, by nature, a voice for the voiceless.
It’s a handmade archive of thoughts and feelings, created even when no one may read it.
This video could be seen as a ZINE in visual form.

There’s no tidy narrative. No complete answers.
Just fragments of emotion left open, waiting for the viewer to assemble their own truth.

That openness—that vulnerability—is what makes this piece so powerful.

■ The Pledge Is Passed to the Viewer

There is no “ending” to this video.
And that’s exactly why it works.

ZINEs, too, are never fully finished—they become whole only when they resonate with a reader’s heart.

The Gray Pledge is not just Rahab’s story.
It’s about the silent promises within all of us—our own gray pledges.