On The Work
Sanctum Papers are occasional essays published by The Cinema Sanctum in support of its educational mission.
On The Work
by
The Cinema Sanctum
A work of art exists independently of the encounter.
It remains where it is.
A painting hangs upon a wall.
A book waits upon a shelf.
A film rests quietly until it is shown again.
Yet no work exists fully in isolation.
Its life is completed only through encounter.
The Cinema Sanctum therefore understands a work of art as neither a finished object nor an unfinished one.
It is a continuing possibility.
Each encounter realises one possibility among many.
No single encounter exhausts the work.
Nor does the work exhaust the encounter.
Something always remains.
This is not because the work deliberately conceals itself.
It is because every encounter brings with it a different participant, a different history, a different moment in time.
The work remains remarkably constant.
The encounter never does.
For this reason, the Sanctum resists speaking of works as problems to be solved.
A mystery ceases to be a mystery once solved.
A work of art often becomes more interesting the longer it remains encountered.
It is therefore approached less as a puzzle than as a companion.
Companionship differs from explanation.
One does not finally explain a friend.
One continues meeting them.
The Cinema Sanctum extends the same courtesy to works of art.
Some works become companions for a season.
Others accompany us for a lifetime.
Neither relationship can be commanded.
Both remain gifts of the encounter.
The work therefore asks for neither admiration nor agreement.
It asks only that we meet it honestly.
Honesty sometimes includes delight.
Sometimes confusion.
Sometimes resistance.
Sometimes silence.
Every honest encounter enlarges the continuing life of the work.
Not because the work itself has changed.
But because another human relationship has now entered its history.
The Cinema Sanctum therefore refuses to ask whether a work has been understood completely.
A better question remains available.
What kind of relationship has become possible?
For works of art do not merely communicate.
At their greatest, they accompany.
And companionship, unlike information, continues unfolding for as long as we remain willing to return.
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