"Tree" by Stephens Hutchings. From the series "Landsapes for the End of Time".
One of the interesting aspects of Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” is the wonderful paradox that exists between the concept of the end of time, itself, and the actual end of one’s own time on earth. For me, this is the essential mystery of life in that it pits the individual up against the eternal, the here-and-now up against the concept of “forever,” and the “self” up against the omnipresent “other.” As a painter working in the landscape genre, this makes me consider what is, in fact, continuous in the world around us. What is it that flows through our lives and through the lives of countless individuals from before the dawn of human time to beyond?
My paintings, which will accompany the Gryphon Trio’s performance of Messiaen’s great Quartet, are attempts to create landscape images that, though specific in their source, are generalised in the final work itself. In this way, they can point to a world that has, indeed, been present before humankind, and, one might assume, will continue after – heaven forbid – our demise.
For instance, the painting “Tree,” which accompanies the 4th movement of Messiaen’s Quartet, was developed from photographic studies of a particular tree in a specific location. The tree in the painting, however, has lost much of that specificity, of its individuality, and is now a good stand-in for the idea of a tree, wherever that tree may exist. Perhaps that tree exists in our memory, or in the longing we have for a balanced life, or a beautiful life, or a life that continues in spite of the knowledge we have of our own mortality. Hence, the quotation from the libretto of Mahler’s “Song of the Earth,” cited previously in this blog by Dan Wang, is very appropriate for both Messiaen’s Quartet and my understanding of it:
The sky is endlessly blue, and the earth
will long remain, and bloom in spring.
But you, Man, how long will you remain?
Not even a hundred years shall you enjoy
all the mouldering trinkets of this earth.
Stephen Hutchings is a painter who resides Ottawa, Ontario. He works mainly with landscape images, creating drawings, prints, paintings and videos. Stephen’s series ”Landscapes for the End of Time” will be projected during the Gryphon Trio’s performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time on August 12.
