Entering Paradise by Terry Flaxton is a serene depiction of the joyful oblivion at the moment of death, evoking the tranquility of Faure’s Requiem. Inspired by the "In Paradisum" antiphon from the Western Church Requiem Mass, it mirrors the comforting chant sung as the body is taken from the church.
Drawing parallels with Tibetan Buddhism, where sounds welcome the soul into the afterlife, the artwork suggests that certain states of Alzheimer's and dementia might signify the mind crossing the life-death boundary ahead of the body. It also echoes William Blake's For Children: The Gates of Paradise, envisioning a seamless link between heaven and earth.
Flaxton’s personal experiences of transcendent bliss, where he felt the dissolution of the self, are deeply embedded in this piece. Entering Paradise invites viewers to contemplate death as a peaceful entry into eternal bliss, portraying it not as an end but a serene transition.
Music by Alan Lethbridge.
On approaching and entering the gates of Paradise, you will notice that you are welcome. You feel that your past life is drifting away from you and becoming untethered from ‘you'. You are new, and what you see is what you know and have experienced for time immemorial - you have always been here between small bouts of amnesia where you were supposed to have learned something, though what that is you cannot now remember because all seems perfect. As you slowly dissolve these past thoughts you surmise that perhaps you were a carrier, a vehicle for shouldering what has to be improved in the world down below, which all now seems a distant memory which is slipping away - but now that you are here, enfolded within the gentle glow of light and sound that surrounds and enfolds you, you know that sooner or later you will go back down again, to do whatever it is we all agreed to do as a condition of our ability to experience this level of joy and bliss - and the trans-action we are involved in is not just acceptable, you want to repeat it again and again because the moment of ‘now’ in this space is worth it. In the light, every so often there are others just like you that pass by, who have similar experiences and they too are happy with the outcome but you have no need to share with them specifically, because in Paradise everything is shared constantly, no one is an island, no one is alone.
In paradisum" - english: "Into paradise”, is an antiphon from the traditional Latin liturgy of the Western Church Requiem Mass. An antiphon is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain and it is sung by the choir as the body is being taken out of the church. The texts of antiphons are usually taken from the Psalms or Scripture, but may also be freely composed. Here the sound composition is by Alan Lethbridge and the image and idea composition is by Terry Flaxton, both of whom work together sometimes to realise certain unfamiliar states of being. During the making of this piece a brilliant woman died - her name was Frances Howard-Gordon. There isn't the space to tell her story here, but suffice it to say, go and search her name with this title, Glastonbury: Maker of Myths - and you’ll see something of her thinking and her life which impacted the piece of work you can now own - Terry Flaxton
