Artists committing suicide is neither new nor strange to this world. History is full of such agonized painters, writers and musicians who fell short of their canvass or words or melodies to hold their emotions. And it's not just the artists who commit suicide; The world is full of such troubled souls. According to WHO, approximately one million people commit suicide each year, that is about one death every 40 seconds. But what soaks us all in grief is when there is an artist out of those 1 million people. And recently we had that experience of grief at the loss Chester Bennington, frontman for the rock band Linkin Park and his death brought back the same question again" why few artists commit suicide or live so recklessly to be called suicide. Despite all the fame and fortune, despite having such a huge influence, Why do they get convinced to put an end to their life.
To answer this question, first of all, we need to understand "what is art and what an artist does?" and no one has ever been closer to answering this than Leo Tolstoy. He says - "to correctly define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life. And something could only represent the condition of a person if it contains the pure expression of that person." So art is a way to express ourselves. It's a medium that gives form to our feelings, in shapes and colors, in words and sentences, in melodies and rhythms. But then the question arises "why do we need to express ourselves" or is it essential for us to express. For all I know, mankind history has always been about self-expression and its by expressing ourselves back in the days that we averted danger; we formed a community, we survived. It's our innate necessity. The earliest human artifacts – the cave paintings of Lascaux – are records of Homo sapiens’ attempt to get out of their heads. We all want to show our reality to other people, and we want to let the world know that we were here.
And by self-expression, we don't just affirm our existence we share our emotions with other people. We share our agony and pain, we share happiness and joy but more often than not it's with the intent of sharing the pain that few people resort to art, at least the great ones. More than anything else it's by painting upon a canvass or writing it down on a piece of paper or singing it out to the world we sort of cope with our overwhelmed feelings. Every great artist has always been driven more by chaos than peace, inspired more by troubled life than the stable. Sometimes they even deliberately ruin things. There is a self in them that they are running away from. There is always a past in them that no matter how far they go in their life but it always comes back to haunt them. T.S Eliot’s lovely remark that art is the escape from personality fully resonates this.
Chester Bennington was no different. There was a self of him he wanted to get rid of. There was the past that he was running away from. Being molested at the age of 7 to being bullied to being addicted to drugs was that chaos in his life that he screamed it out through his songs. Being beaten by drug addiction, alcoholism and depression that he resorted to music to vent it all out. It's not always out of a passion that the artists choose art but sometimes by having no other means to save themselves that they fall into art for salvation There is no surprise why Chester's lyrics often focused on personal struggle, depression, and addiction. Why it always ignites hope in all of us and persuade us to try it one more time and then make us believe that you have to fall to lose it all but in the end, it doesn't even matter. Stanislavski, the great acting teacher, once said: “You have to figure out whether you’re in love with the art in yourself, or yourself in the art.” and the answer for few artists like Chester has always been the former. They loved the art in them. Sometimes they loved it with such an intensity that it helped them dissolve their self that they were running away from.
And there is one more thing that goes familiar in every great artist especially rock musicians that no matter how hard they worked to build up their career but in the end, it's them who ruined it. In a flick, they shatter the house of cards they used their whole life to erect. Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain in their last few years of life grew aloof to music. They didn't wanna write songs or perform with their band members. No matter how much they were convinced by their closed ones they kept themselves hooked on drugs and alcohol.
Build Book Reading Habit With Kindle
But out of all the external remedies that we seek to heal the wounds of our past, art is perhaps the best option. It might or might not help a person fully cope with his emotional imbalance but it does make him leave an artifact that is cherished by other people and assist them in taking shelter in it when they are left vulnerable. Chester's songs might not have had enough of space in it to accommodate all his sorrows but for us it always does. and whenever we will be left disappointed in our life we would tune to his songs to make us rise again.
To answer this question, first of all, we need to understand "what is art and what an artist does?" and no one has ever been closer to answering this than Leo Tolstoy. He says - "to correctly define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life. And something could only represent the condition of a person if it contains the pure expression of that person." So art is a way to express ourselves. It's a medium that gives form to our feelings, in shapes and colors, in words and sentences, in melodies and rhythms. But then the question arises "why do we need to express ourselves" or is it essential for us to express. For all I know, mankind history has always been about self-expression and its by expressing ourselves back in the days that we averted danger; we formed a community, we survived. It's our innate necessity. The earliest human artifacts – the cave paintings of Lascaux – are records of Homo sapiens’ attempt to get out of their heads. We all want to show our reality to other people, and we want to let the world know that we were here.
And by self-expression, we don't just affirm our existence we share our emotions with other people. We share our agony and pain, we share happiness and joy but more often than not it's with the intent of sharing the pain that few people resort to art, at least the great ones. More than anything else it's by painting upon a canvass or writing it down on a piece of paper or singing it out to the world we sort of cope with our overwhelmed feelings. Every great artist has always been driven more by chaos than peace, inspired more by troubled life than the stable. Sometimes they even deliberately ruin things. There is a self in them that they are running away from. There is always a past in them that no matter how far they go in their life but it always comes back to haunt them. T.S Eliot’s lovely remark that art is the escape from personality fully resonates this.
Recommended Book "The Denial of Death"
And there is one more thing that goes familiar in every great artist especially rock musicians that no matter how hard they worked to build up their career but in the end, it's them who ruined it. In a flick, they shatter the house of cards they used their whole life to erect. Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain in their last few years of life grew aloof to music. They didn't wanna write songs or perform with their band members. No matter how much they were convinced by their closed ones they kept themselves hooked on drugs and alcohol.
read more - Why Steve Jobs lived Distorted Reality
Chester despite screaming all his sorrows through his songs, despite writing such intense lyrics couldn't stream out all his pain. Art turned out to be inadequate to help him cope with his emotions and grief. And this is how it ended for every artist who settled with art to compensate for the loss of human love. No matter how intensely you are into art but there will always be a part of your psyche that will be untouched by it. and This is the testimony to the fact that no external solace, no forms of art, no addiction, no obsession can substitute for Love. No matter how great of a painter you are, doesn't matter how beautifully you write or sing but if it is to cover the scars on your body, it will always fall short.Build Book Reading Habit With Kindle
But out of all the external remedies that we seek to heal the wounds of our past, art is perhaps the best option. It might or might not help a person fully cope with his emotional imbalance but it does make him leave an artifact that is cherished by other people and assist them in taking shelter in it when they are left vulnerable. Chester's songs might not have had enough of space in it to accommodate all his sorrows but for us it always does. and whenever we will be left disappointed in our life we would tune to his songs to make us rise again.
Comments
Post a Comment