Page 71 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 2 #2

THE BEAUTY OF SADNESS 64

“Not all art is beautiful,” I thought. “No, that respond that way, no one seems to ever lis-
won’t work,” I said to myself. ten to how you do. Perchance they do, they
“Art is about many things. There is beauty in quickly become uncomfortable. They don’t
sadness just as there is beauty in joy. Some- know how to respond. Or, perhaps, respond-
times art is intended to provoke a reaction. ing requires a measure of honesty about
Sadness is a very powerful emotion and it themselves, their lives, at which they are un-
can provoke a powerful response in the view- willing to look. Perhaps.
er……” I can’t say for sure. It isn’t like I can do an

Honestly, I don’t remember what I said after empirical study on the subject either. “Ques-
that. It must have been humorous because tion One: When someone tells you how they
everyone was laughing. Reductio ad absur- are really feeling when you ask ‘How are
dum – literally reducing the situation to the you?” do you feel: (a) awkward because you
absurd. It works quite well when it comes to don’t want to think about what you are really
diffusing an awk- “Most people imagine that a man suffers feeling (b) angry be-
ward situation, es- because, out of the blue, death snatch- cause he or she has
pecially if one can es away the woman he loves. But his real been honest……..’”
make the situation suffering is less futile, it comes from Pascal, in “The Pas-
humorous. the discovery that grief, too, cannot toral Letters,” once
But a week has last. Even grief is vanity.” - camus wrote that humans
passed and I am long to be happy
still trapped in that conversation. and the only way
we can be happy given the fact that we all
I have never thought of my work as provoca- die is to fool ourselves into thinking we live
tive. Intentionally poking the viewer to elicit forever. Perhaps, it is that sadness reminds
a reaction. I have never thought of my work us that we do not. Perhaps it is that sadness
as disturbing, well, with the exception of no forces us to look at what we are really feel-
more than a handful of images. I had never ing beneath the thin veil of happiness. Per-
thought of my work as divisive or alienating. haps sadness moves us to consider stepping
I see only the profound beauty. And yes, I see away from the vanilla sameness of our lives.
the beauty in the sadness.
Perhaps it is sadness that reminds us that
But, isn’t sadness beautiful? the only truth is ultimately our mortality and
Perhaps that was the problem for Olivier. He that all the “Truths” we manufacture pale in
hasn’t seen the beauty in sadness. Or, is it my the end in the face of death. Perhaps it is that
problem because I do? sadness would move us – as Heidegger once
said – to stand open and stand in the world –
I tried to tell Olivier that there is something,
well, superficial, about people smiling. We all responsible for the creation of our own lives
know how to do it and we have rehearsed the and destiny - as we are propelled towards
“cheesecake smile,” as I like to call it, from our own mortality. Perhaps it is sadness that
before we can sit up. I find it…….superficial. would press our faces against the fact that
Empty. Evasive. A lie. It is rather like the love pains us, and that we long to love and
way we respond to the question, “How are be loved even in the face of the limits death
you?” We always answer “Fine, thank you.” places on our ability to love. Perhaps.
Or something like that. And even if you don’t In The House of NyghtFalcon, we talk about

nyghtvision magazine volume 2, number 2, summer 2012