Sonder*

2026

Watermixable oil, cold wax, acrylic, pastel, pencil and watercolour on canvas

60 x 90 cm 

Framed in kiaat

One of four works in Chapter 3 ('Discovering New Placenames') of Book 1 (Mapping the Inner Landscape) in the ongoing series Wordstrings

*/ˈzɒndə/, noun [U], likely from French and German
The realisation and understanding that all other people have their own life story, as complex as one’s own, in which they are the most important person

Introduced by American author John Koenig in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words coined to describe feelings, emotional states, etc., for which the English language seems to lack a current word. The dictionary was initiated as a website in 2009 and became a printed book in 2021. The word likely stems from the French sonder (“to measure the depth of”) and in part from the German sondern (“to separate”).