Whatever we feel from instrumental Music is an original, and not a sympathetic feeling: it is our own gaiety,
sedateness, or melancholy; not the reflected disposition of another person.
The title of his recent exhibition, "The Character of the Equation," suggests the mathematical basis of the work, the predetermination that contributes to its
sedateness. Yet if Pounce doesn't pounce, Skid doesn't skid, and Dart doesn't dart, the five sculptures on view here (all 2001) do seem to be on the move, their curves and angles signaling some kind of upheaval.
The translation offered then reveals the
sedateness of the meaning locked up in the ancient tongue, but one finds none the less that the English version is more demure than the Latin.
Worried that the "extreme vivacity" of teen-aged girls can lead to "very serious consequences" and "very hurtful conduct," Fordyce recommends friendship with an older married woman whose advice could teach them the "habits of sobriety" and a "spirit of
sedateness": "'He that walketh with wise men shall be wise,' said the wisest of mortals....
The strokemaker has been forced to abandon aggression for
sedateness.
Indeed, there was an air of
sedateness about proceedings that was never going to last.
If they view the
sedateness of the native culture with a skeptical eye, they can also be grateful for it.
John Currin seems to be cleaning up his act, at least a little: no more extravagantly chesty women, the cartooniness of some paintings balanced by a certain
sedateness in others.
This is nowhere more apparent than when the news of his release from Lucy triggers her spontaneous release of long-suppressed emotion: "She almost ran out of the room, and as soon as the door was closed, burst into tears of joy, which at first she thought would never cease" (360); "it required several hours to give
sedateness to her spirits, or any degree of tranquillity to her heart" (363).
