After Lethe and Floodland comes ‘Why is always December?’ the third of our (very loose) trilogy exploring oblivion, memory and the fear of losing identity. Why is it always December? interrogates our need to memorialise even the most slightest thing. Social media allows us to share even the most banal aspect of our existence creating for us personas that beg for connectivity, that fear of being alone, indeed that are absolutely incapable of being alone without informing the world of the fact. The private and the public are now one and the same, every portrait a self-portrait. Our biographies now selfies; intimacy now a need for infinite verification, to be ‘liked’ and applauded by friends, ‘virtual’-friends and strangers so that our immortality is assured. It’s as if we are afraid that silence or invisibility equates with not existing or non-being. Our constant and continual commemoration and celebration occurs not because we are necessarily happy but because we fear that things will end. Memory becomes microscopic yet somehow concurrently mythic.

This issue accompanies the ‘Why is it always December? exhibition at Millennium Court Arts Centre Portadown in April.

You can find it here: http://abridgedonline.com/abridged-0-45-why-is-it-always-december/

The title and inspiration for this issue is taken from a 1000 Violins song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOu1OCvhUw0

Abridged is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland