The art of darkness - and beyond?
Exploring the curious case of light vs dark, and on… into multidimensionality
When I wrote my MSc thesis, I remember vividly having a discussion with my supervisor about the value of art, and what made art uninteresting, invalid and unworthy of being ‘art’.
My main premise at the time was any art that deliberately made us delve into the darker depths of our humanity (gosh that is a lot of unnecessary alliteration 😂) is - well - worthy art. Otherwise, the art is insipid and uninteresting.
I’ve since revised my feelings and thoughts on this radically.
It’s never been clearer to me that we live in an insidiously homogenised society, where any activity, emotion, idea or consciousness happening outside a specific bandwidth of “normality” is deemed dangerous.
Dangerous to ourselves and each other.
And yet, there is a clear hypocrisy here, because where DARKNESS is willingly explored in detail; so much so our cultural norms include “gritty realism” in fiction and “psychological horror” on our screens*, there is yet to be an equal exploration of the opposite.
[* And I haven’t even mentioned embalmed cows yet…]
Where - in the traditional, croney art world - is the art of our LIGHTNESS?
I see it on Instagram. I see it becoming more and more evident in women’s circles everywhere. I see it in clear strata of exploration, from superficial to mind-and-energy-blowing!
How have we unconditionally accepted as a society that the art of darkness is multifaceted and infinitely curious - and yet the art of lightness is less than a dot on the spectrum of our existence? A dot so unworthy of our attention it is deemed completely uninteresting. Bland. At best, obvious.
I have my answer ready folks! It’s because YOUR EMOTIONAL EXISTENCE is only interesting to systems and authorities when it can make them money.
And guess what? Our lightness - our acceptance, understanding, peace, trust, excitement, love, gratitude, joy, wonder and awe - are states of being which typically don’t make these systems money.
So far I’ve only mentioned life in a very 2D way. This is how we’re taught to consider our humanity - light vs dark. Everything falls into one of the two (even numbness / freeze response and comfort).
We are actually multidimensional beings. And my art explores exactly this in ALL its glory, because I refuse to numb and infantilise myself or my audience - and because I find it infinitesimally fascinating, exponentially nourishing and unfathomably unexplored within our society.
We deserve SO very much more.
You deserve to understand, embrace, and be awed into your own expansive, multidimensional reality.
Will you choose it?
Has this changed how you view the value of art? If so, tell me how! 😍🌈🔥🌟