Innocence redux
"Killjoy" asks if empathy erodes as we grow up. I think not.
"This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal."
—Toni Morrison
Usually, I get a grasp of a show before going to see it by looking over images and reading what the venue sends out; if research is called for, I’ll see the art first and do the reading later.
Last week, I went to see a show that drew me, in part, because of its description. “Killjoy,” curated by Ola Aksan at Harvard Ed Portal, “posits that a lifetime of harsh behaviors challenges our innate capacity for understanding others,” according to the website.
That worried me. My first thought was, “oh my God, is this pointing to a trend? Are artists leaning into cynicism?”