The title of this piece is a reference to the song Joy, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The full lyric
states “We’ve all had too much sorrow – now is the time for joy”, as spoken to him by the ghost of his
dead son. In his journal, The Red Hand Files, Nick Cave further states, “Joy is not always a feeling that
is freely bestowed upon us, often it is something we must actively seek. In a way, joy is a decision, an
action, even a practiced method of being. It is an earned thing brought into focus by what we have
lost – at least, it can seem that way.” In his poem On Joy and Sorrow, Kahlil Gibran writes “Your joy is
your sorrow unmasked”; that when we acknowledge and process our sorrow, we expand our capacity
for joy.
This piece focuses on the interconnectedness of sorrow and joy; light and dark. The title exists in the
in between, in the moment of transition. In this space, we are left with fragments; traces of rooms
and memories. Lines of light sear deep on our retinas, leaving behind incomplete segments like
sedimentary layers. These shapes remain as amplified echoes in a room exploding with light,
reflecting and expanding in the surrounding glass panels when viewed from within. When viewed
from the outside, everything appears contained and confined to the volume defined by the
surrounding architecture.
But it happened again. It happens
when we make bottomless love —
there follows a bottomless sadness
which is not despair
but its nameless opposite.
It has nothing to do with the passing of time.
It’s not about loss. It’s about
two seemingly parallel lines
suddenly coming together
inside us, in some place
that is still wilderness.
Joy, joy, the sopranos sing,
reaching for the shimmering notes
while our eyes fill with tears.
– Excerpt from JOY by Lisel Mueller
