Saymia Pinder

When a person experiences my show, I want them to become aware of the liminal spaces within their own emotions. I want to make people focus on introspection and think about the feelings we tend to push away as a society. Certain emotions and feelings make us uncomfortable for reasons we don’t always understand, and I am making these feelings more relatable and attainable. In order to achieve this, I am using words from the “Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows”; “a web series that defines newly invented words for strangely powerful emotions. Written, edited, and narrated by John Koenig.” My entire conceptual process is based off these words in order to create an unavoidable conversation with ourselves about the parts of us we may not quite understand or want to know yet. Many of these words touch on a sense of “otherness”, describing emotions somewhere between reality and fantasy. I believe that as humans, we are fascinated by the unknown and we yearn to be understood on a level that we may not even know ourselves. We are always searching for new ways to be understood and new ways to find meaning in our lives. We spend all of our time searching for validation coming from outsiders when we should look for our own validation from within. My show works closely with the concept of Shadow Work; an introspective psychological practice one can use to become more comfortable with the parts of ourselves we reject or find “incorrect”. I am still working to accept those parts of myself, and through working on all the pieces in my show I have come closer to understanding and accepting myself. In making this a public production, I am making my art a catalyst for others to take that first step in reaching internal peace with themselves. 
 
Definitions: 
Opia – The ambiguous intensity of eye contact 
 
Anemonia – Nostalgia for a time you’ve never known 
 
Ballagarraidh – The awareness that you are not at home in the wilderness 
 
Klexos – The art of dwelling in the past 
 
Sonder – The realization that everyone has a story 
 
Nodus Tollens – When your life doesn’t fit into a story 
 
Yù Yï - The desire to feel intensely again 
 
Vemodalen – The fear that everything has already been done 
 
Silience – The brilliant artistry hidden all around you 
 
Dès Vu – The awareness that this will become a memory