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Paradoxically Absurd | 2019
synonyms: preposterous, ridiculous, ludicrous, farcical, laughable, risible;
idiotic, stupid, foolish, silly, inane, imbecilic, insane, implausible, unthinkable,
unreasonable, irrational, illogical, nonsensical, pointless, senseless; outrageous,
shocking, astonishing, monstrous, fantastic, incongruous, grotesque; unbelievable,
incredible, informal crazy;
///wildly unreasonable, illogical , or inappropriate ///
adjective / noun
/əbˈsəːd/
Paradoxically Absurd*
/ˌparəˈdɒksɪkli/
adverb
///Seeming impossible or difficult to understand because of containing
two opposite facts or characteristics/// a situation which seems to defy logic
synonyms: contradictory, self-contradictory, inconsistent, incongruous,
anomalous, conflicting; improbable, odd, unethical,
illogical, confusing, puzzling, baffling, bewildering,
incomprehensible, inexplicable; contradiction,
dichotomy, incongruity,
rare oxymoronic
//an absurd state of affairs//
The exhibition addresses the act of accepting two mutually contradictory
beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts.
the immediate physical and social setting in which people
live or in which something happens or develops.
It includes the culture that the individual was
educated or lives in,
breathes in,
eats in,
talks in,
walks in,
plays in,
works in,
grows in,
studies in,
and the people and institutions with whom he/she interacts.
Growth and decline, seen and unseen, outside and inside,
macroscopic and microscopic, mundane and surreal, finite and infinite,
random and scripted become the common thread to represent
the connection between the accepted dichotomies of life.
The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously,
and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them,
to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again,
to` draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed,
to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—
all this is indispensably necessary.
Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink.
For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality;
by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely,
with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.
- Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, London, part 2, chapter 9, pp 220
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed.
- Orwell, George (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, London, part 1, chapter 3, pp 32
The exhibition took place at:
Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi Gallery, Chandigarh
Image Credits: Diwan Manna