Envy
Bitter Regard
Upward regard that wounds. Another's having, felt as one's own lack. Contempt looks down and wants nothing. Envy looks up and still wants. The wanting is what does the damage.
The word
English took envy from the Old French envie, out of the Latin invidia, built on invidere: to look against, to see with ill will. The Romans tied invidia to the evil eye, harm done by looking. The gaze is in the word's bones; envy has always been an act of vision.
The feeling
It starts as attention that will not detach. Someone else's success sits in the field of view and your own situation quietly reorganizes around it as deficit. The body registers a tightening somewhere between hunger and insult. It is one of the few emotions that watches itself: you feel it, know it is ugly, and keep looking.
Against its neighbours
Admiration sees excellence and expands; envy sees the same excellence and subtracts it from itself. Contempt looks down and is finished; envy looks up and cannot finish, because the wanting keeps the object in view.
In the work
Two centres, lit unequally. The lesser one is where the viewer is standing.
No work carries Envy yet. The element is named and the table is not finished.