In creative pursuits, the last thing to settle into, is settling in. Even complete, such ventures are perpetually unfinished. This incomplete-ness is really a canvas for reflection, for evolution, for things to be challenged, and even, to be proven wrong. If it is wise to see things through, is it wiser perhaps, to make space for a few unfinished, loose ends?

Poverty of aspirations leads to complacency, a settling in. For the creatively restless, a pause is also a constant in the making. There is always a quest for the next, not necessarily the new. Each endeavour is no more than a pause to assess, to test, to learn and expand into the next dimension.

This week’s issue uncovers creative outcomes as pauses: a city in progress, the Canada Pavilion at Venice Biennale is ‘Not for Sale!’; an exhibition suggesting that art and life are related and ongoing, relays how ‘Life is More Important Than Art, That’s Why Art is Important’; Eva Fabregas questions the infinitudes of desire by ‘Devouring Lovers’; Christian Benimana questions whether architecture hurts or heals in its fragmentary pursuit through the lens of health inequities.

Can a state of creation between finality and continuity be defined as progress?