Ataraxia
2018
Slate
London
more infoless info
Donated piece of stone (thanks Lucinda!), sawn square and lightly prepared. Hand drawn and cut lettering in the style of Trajan's column. My original thought for this piece of stone was TRANQUILITY, HARMONY. But then I wanted to research words attached to WAR. I didn't have a thesaurus in book form to hand so I looked at an online thesaurus. Attached to WAR, I noted BATTLE - ASSAULT, BOMBING - SHELLING; BLOODSHED - CARNAGE, MASSACRE, ONSLAUGHT; COMBAT; CONFLICT; HOSTILITY - HATRED; HAVOC aswell. But then I noticed the antonyms for WAR were, among others, HARMONY and TRANQUILITY. I looked at words attached to TRANQUILITY and discovered ATARAXIA. The definition for this word is: Freedom from emotional disturbance, which I quite like. Also: At ease, or Rest at ease. Literally: Unperturbed. Researching ATARAXIA further I learnt it is an ancient Greek idea. Also that it is supposed to be the ideal state for soldiers to be in before battle! So there was a link to WAR afterall! ATARAXIA is an idea or state that the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus espoused and I have discovered I think I am slightly Epicurean!!! Currently unavailable for sale.