Sea Sunset Moon

The experience of solitude is a dual force. Like the sea, sunset and the moon solitude is linked to pain and abandonment while at the same time being an invitation for growth and self reflection.

The word ‘solitude’ is derived from the Latin solitudinem, which carries with it a sense of desolation and aloneness. The word ‘alone,’ however, comes from the Mediaeval words all anne, which can be read as ‘wholly oneself.’ The historical meaning around the concept of solitude therefore contains both the acknowledgement of pain as well as an invitation to transform that pain into a deeper understanding of who you are. 

In the history of literature and mythology we see the same transformation happening within the archetype of the hero’s journey, which sets out a model for self-realisation through suffering. Within stories of this type a hero's solitude transforms into a deeper understanding of who he or she is, and material suffering ceases to be painful and becomes a doorway into self-knowledge. Odysseus, for example, is flung out onto the wild seas after the fall of Troy. After losing all his men, he proceeds to endure unimaginable loneliness. He spends ten years wandering before returning back home as a changed man. After his adventures he reclaims his seat as the lord of Ithaca and is reunited with his wife Penelope. Within this myth pain and growth are woven into each other and at the hands of aloneness the experience of human vulnerability brings a renewed appreciation of life.

Just as solitude can be both cruel and revitalising so can the sea, sunset and moon. These forces of nature offer a very basic comfort while at the same time they draw from within us awe, fear, anguish and the adrenaline-driven instinct for survival. Just as the heroes from mythology find solace in their solitude, perhaps these forces of nature can also point us in a direction which begins from desolation but ends with creativity and hope. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed solitude into people’s lives like never before in living memory. Aloneness has changed the abstract homes within which we become who we are. Spaces shift, relationships are put under pressure, time alters it’s flow and our identities are tested to their limits. 

What do the new experiences of aloneness teach us about our humanity and about who we are, both together and apart? Sea Sunset Moon seeks to find an answer to this question via the work of seven interdisciplinary artists exploring a set of Mediterranean symbols which rise and set in our collective experience of aloneness.