Self-Imposed Schadenfreude
This collection of works portrays the various facets of mental collapse and tragedy as man searches for meaning. To begin, 'The Swirling Eddies of Eigengrau' demonstrates the trauma of personal choice, of the abandonment of lifelong dreams in order to find rest. From the final moments of life and moving backward into adulthood, 'The Will to Live' measures the intransigence of people to their idols, how people willingly fall into a sort of cycle, never to break free. Once one is possessed by ideas, they cease to be individualistic, and in a sense, they cease to be at all.
While the previously mentioned works delve into abstract lenses of mental collapse, 'Vitiligo of Existence' and 'Zenith of Pain' paint a direct picture of personal loss, grief, and acceptance. In these works, I paint the destitute misery of helplessness, of hope receding at a fairy tale gone wrong.
I complete the collection with works inspired by historical collapse: Facet and Reverie. We truly live in a land of dreams, one where the skies are filled with aspirations and the hopes of the past become the commonplace of the present. Grounded in the mindset that dreams are meant to succeed, people are often misled. While this allows the cornerstone of progress to expand beautifully, it neglects the history of pain and suffering that embitters the country.
As a whole, these works represent the struggle between happiness and existence. Mankind tends to examine problems from one side at a time. What we must realize that all our endeavors coalesce into the single struggle of humanity: the struggle to find meaning.
'Self-Imposed Schadenfreude' demonstrates the tragedies that you laugh at before realizing that you are merely laughing at yourself.