The Radiance Under the Tone, The Dark of the Current

Art - Recent Work

Jun 21

Written By Patrick Gannon

⊛ The Radiance Under the Tone, The Dark of the Current ⊛ cut + torn paper / wood ⊛ 4 x 6 in • 100 x 150 mm — **⊛ The Radiance Under the Tone, The Dark of the Current**
⊛ cut + torn paper / wood
⊛ 4 x 6 in • 100 x 150 mm

The waves are dark and deep, the current strong, grasping and hungry.

Thrumming, humming, pulsing, crackling

A rousing illumination shines, a hopeful song can be heard.

Will it be swallowed into the depths or splinter the shadows?

First, there is a thought. A flicker of a neuron in one mind. A nanosecond-long electrical impulse.

This thought reoccurs, again and again. Becomes less shadow, more distinct. Congeals into an idea.

The idea is ruminated on, massaged, examined, re-examined, tossed away, embraced, destroyed and rebuilt.

It emerges, as if from a cocoon, as an epiphany.

It is a shining lantern in the murkiest dark; a howling call to take action.

And then there is the pushback. There is little in this world that frightens us more than a new idea. A big enough idea sends tremors through the status quo, threatens to strip power and control from those who have it and redistribute it to… elsewhere. The stygian darkness that wraps us up now, well, at least it’s a darkness we know. We can navigate it. It’s a familiar confusion. A comfortingly smothering blanket.

There’s a point when every idea, inspiration, or epiphany needs to be shared to become real.

A social element, where it needs to be shuffled along, like passing a torch from one hand to the next in the night. Except that the first hand doesn’t lose the light when it’s been passed. It isn’t a perfect analogy. This moment, when an idea opens to the world, is when it is most fragile. Most open to destruction, mutilation, manipulation. Most in need of guidance and protection.

Created initially for the theme 音色 (tone), this concept seemed a good fit with pulse / sound wave imagery. Whether an illumination or a steady drumbeat, the need to offer it up and pass it on is still there.