SUFFER BETTER

Curated by Alexandra Hammond for 184 Project Space

October 21, 2019

“Good morning my pain, my sorrow, my fear. I see you. I am here. Don’t worry.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus¹

Why do we suffer? Is my suffering unique? Is there a set amount of suffering in the world so that if one escapes suffering, a heavier amount must befall another? Why are there some materials that are polished by the grindstone and others that break with the friction?

Suffering is part of the experience of life in the body. The word derives from the Latin sufferre, from sub, ‘from below’ and ferre, ‘to bear’². It seems that suffering, whether physical or psychological, must have a body to be borne by. The state of subjecthood, then, is the ground on which suffering rests its yoke. Without the shamed Sisyphus to roll it, the boulder would have remained a steady rock.

Does suffering have a purpose? Does a measured dose make us better? Can we outsource it? Jesus’ life as remembered in the dominant gospels has transcendent purpose: “With his stripes, we are healed” - Isaiah 53:2-5. From there, Weber's Protestant ethic³ suggests that we might distance ourselves from suffering by working hard and saving up. The very promise of consumer capitalism is that we can buy our way to permanent bliss, always one more purchase away.

But what if suffering just exists? What if there is no escape, and nothing wrong with its emanation⁴? What if, as Thich Nhat Hanh puts it, the fragrant lotus flower needs the stinky mud in order to build its body. In that case, who is who? Mud and lotus are one system of impermanence, constantly metabolizing one state of being into another — one’s circumstances are always the perfect ground for the blossoming of awareness.

The work of the artists in SUFFER BETTER embodies the possibility for intimacy with, and transformation of suffering — a composting process that liberates us from a hierarchical perception of better and worse. Natalie Baxter refigures tools of emotional and physical violence into huggable sculptures while Sarah Grass draws the processes and pathways of the mind forming thought, building and dismantling ego’s protective storylines. Joanne Leah styles and photographs bodies in states of interbeing — layered with pigments, gilding and other bodies. Regina Parra’s paintings and video reclaim gestures deemed unwell by the emergent field of psychiatry to formulate a new vocabulary of feminine desire. The drawings and video of Pippi Zornoza examine the mind’s impulses to collect, ruminate and revisit in its attempts to create stability in a ground of constant flux.

These artists propose processes and pathways toward recognition of a both/and state of being. Through awareness of our aversion to suffering, we may learn to hold it like a crying child on our hip as we go about our business⁵. If we love our suffering, we can learn to suffer better.

1. Thich Nat Hanh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering (Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, 2014)
2. Online Etymology Dictionary, “Suffer, v,” Accessed November 17, 2019. https://www.etymonline.com/word/suffer
3. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Penguin Books, New York, 2002)
4. Christopher D. Wallis, Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition (Mattamayura Press, Petaluma, California, 2012)
5. Paraphrased from Kelly Blaser, founder of Dharmabridge