Melancholia in the Space Between Us

Melancholia shadows us. Allow it to touch your mood for only a day and you might wander as I have into a space painted with leaded eyes and bored hunched forms in “The Space Between Us.”

A woman stands against the back drop of an urban setting. Her lost expression and aimless posture is the tattle tale sign of a heaviness that makes even opening your eyes in the morning feel like a burden.A man swallows his eyes in his hands, his fingers resting on the stress points of his temples. There is nothing around him.

They are alone in their surroundings. They move and do in the daily repetitions, but smiles and joy never come their way.


 I felt alone the day I saw the paintings. In a city bustling with smiles, and movement, hugs, and LIFE, my hands were cold, my sighs many, and a psychologist may have written me off as acutely depressed.

Walking into Blind Side I felt that the exhibit mimicked my emotions mockingly. And, I began to wonder ‘why do I feel this way?’ These weren’t the faces of people attacked by disease or a tragedy. My melancholia wasn’t linked to anything…

“I felt it was important for work depicting an emotional state to create a response or memory of the same emotional state in the observer…”~Chris Bennett, Artist.

Eerily gifted at painting an emotional state, Bennett’s “The Space Between Us” also harnesses the viewer to question the cause of the emotion.

“This… work explores the dehumanising quality of the city in Western culture…the way in which individuals become alienated from their environment… and each other, resulting in…apathy. The works aimed to create a sense of mono no aware…it is a sorrow of the loss of touch.” ~ Chris Bennett

Later that evening, I rushed into the arms of my loved one. Could his touch be enough to lift off the shadows of Melancholia? I pressed harder into his embrace. 

My nose nuzzled into the softness of his sweater and my ear rested against his heart beat. A heavy sigh left my body. In a city with an endless array of entertainment, somehow a simple moment embraced in a hug was what I needed to lift away my melancholia. Perhaps, Bennett was right in his observations. There is a 'space between us." There is a disconnect. And, for a lucky few a warm embrace is all we need to come back to life.