About the Sixth

Sometimes the most present person in a group is precisely the one who is not there. Glances, assumptions and words gather around that person. Perhaps appearances are being judged, perhaps facts are being judged. Yet as the story passes from one person to another, truth inevitably mingles with individual perceptions.

Gossip creates, for a moment, the illusion of closeness among those who share it, but it is a fragile closeness. It holds us back, lowers us within our own human condition and diminishes something in our integrity, even when we convince ourselves that we are right.

Seen from the position of the sixth, the work speaks about the strength to remain genuine and faithful to one's own identity. It speaks about not allowing the voices of others to take away our confidence, alter our direction or divert us from our path.

Judgement and gossip belong to an unworthy, yet profoundly human side of us. About the Sixth neither excuses them nor condemns them solemnly. It places them before us like a mirror. In turn, we may recognise ourselves both among those who speak and in the one being spoken about.