The Art Deco

A Lana Del Rey song, A Beautiful Tragedy

When I first heard ‘Art Deco’ by Lana Del Rey I didn’t actually like, too slow too vintage (forgive me for I was too young and naive to understand her. She is like black coffee, you need to develop a taste for it) but what I did remember was the clips of The Great Gatsby movie used for a fan video where the song was used. For someone cluless about the Art Deco Era it was a whole new classy world. The way Americans were living, their hedonistic lifestyle, the art and the tragedies written in that era. It was beautiful. It was the roaring 20s

Later I came across another MV with her song ‘Dark Paradise’ for the Academy nominated movie ‘A Single Man’. It was riddled with melancholy and loss but beautiful yet again. It narrated how the only way a person could meet a dead lover was through death itself.

I never understood how loss of love or it becoming unrequited could ever be defined 'beautiful' Maybe its because you would never want to be the one experiencing but you would like to remember it and cherish it in a second-hand way.

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Last year at Delhi book-fare while giving a final glance at the heaps of books about cliche love and erotica I found the serious face of Colin Firth peeking out on a paperback. I saw the title ‘A Single Man’ and bought it immediately.

The book was extremely depressing but then again it was written by one of those rare gifted humans who have a way of describing even the most pariah of moments with utter sincerity and beauty.

On my daily metro commute I started listening to Lana Del Ray again. Though her songs might sound initially flamboyant, with time you begin to understand her way of perceiving love and proscriptive attraction towards scenarios that would ultimately lead to suffering. Again suffering becomes beautiful, life imitates art.

Eventually I added ‘Art Deco’ to the playlist just to experiment. This time when I heard it my college self went nuts. Loved it would have been underestatement. I heard the song on repeat for 2.5 hours. I remember it being a cold January evening, I was having coffee outside the venue of Starbucks while listening to it. They still hadn’t taken down the Christmas Lights . It felt peaceful..beautiful. Ironic considering the couple next to me was having a passive aggressive fight.

It embarrasses me to admit but I had initially though ‘Art Deco’ was what a painting exhibition was called. It hurts to even type it. Apologies readers.

I now know what it actually is, and today I randomly tried estimating the date on which Chrysler building (a distinguished symbol of Art Deco period) was finished.

As a mental exercise I often try guessing dates of major events that made history or shocked the world. I guessed it to be 1930s. It was actually 1928 …I will still take pride in estimating a figure close to it.

Anyway, Google has this habit of giving unnecessary information along with the answer to your question. When the question is the creation date of Chrysler building would I want to know how many people have jumped from Empire State building? No.

My research wasn’t done yet. I remember reading somewhere that the architect of Empire State Building in New York was cross with the architect of Chrysler and was determined to break the his record of tallest building ever made. I checked the finishing of Empire State Building (another creation of the same period) but again it also had info about the suicide jumps. This time I finally clicked on it. It was about a woman called Evelyn McHale who had jumped from the building in 1947. I wouldn’t have searched more had I not read that is was quoted to be the most beautiful suicide in the world.

This was the first time I had read suicide and the word beautiful together in the same sentence.

I was intrigued. I opened new tabs with articles from different newspaper and stories referencing it. In 1947, Evelyn McHale jumped from ESB she fell on the UN lemousine parked near the building. A student photographer took a photograph of this scene.

When I saw this picture I understood why it was called beautiful.

The way her body laid on the car ceiling looked as if metal was nestling her with soft folds. Her feet and hands were elegantly laid in an formal yet coy manner. Her face relaxed, undisturbed. Even the angle from which the picture was taken resembled how of a model in a luxury magazine would be captured.

The photograph was far from anything remotely close to death.

When she was being removed,her bones had become so fluid with the impact,the body became seriously mangled during this.

Another article had a Taylor Swift reference. I thought it must be due to a random lyric but no. The reality was terribly insensitive. In the starting scene of her song Bad Blood's video, Swift falls of a building onto the top of a car, a scene which was eerily similar to McHale’s suicide.

Tragedies are always found beautiful and compelling as long as they don’t happen to us in real life.