variations on the theme of black and white….

Sarah Bernhardt as the sad clown, Pierrot.

Pierrot: a stock character of 17th century French theatre. Perpetually raining black tears down his white face; an incurable case of unrequited love reprised over the course of four centuries.

Visually and conceptually, the Pierrot character is analogous to the Chinese yin yang symbol; a balance of opposites. The sad clown. The unloved lover. Light within the darkness and darkness within the light. Both inevitabilities always present, always possible, always true.

The woman caught out in the rain, her face washed down her face. The Joker of Batman fame, for whom "every slaughter contains laughter." The predatory "eyelashes" of Gene Simmons. The fierce beauty of Andy Biersack. The elegant androgyny of David Bowie.

Centre: the classic Pierrot. Clockwise from top left:
Gene Simmons of Kiss, multiple Pierrots at the Venice Carnevale,
David Bowie in the movie Pierrot in Turquoise, self-portrait by llllollll,
Black Veil Brides (Andy Biersack in the centre), Lady Gaga from Applause.

Venetian Pierrot mask.

More on the subject of Pierrot here.

For more reflections on the yin yang, click here, here, or here.

on the multiplicity of truth

Most trains of human thought exist to sort things out. To render the complex clear. To shine light on the obscure. To make sense of the world and who we are within it.

The arts, though -- at their best -- are a vessel to contain it all; to celebrate the complexities and the ambiguities. Because life isn’t simple. Because opposing ideas are often both true. Because the choices we make and the choices we fail to make, the choices that others make, change us. Because there is light and there is darkness, and both are sacred.

Because truth is multiple, and messy and contradictory. And essential.