The Yin Yang symbol proposes that in every light there resides a fleck of darkness, and in every dark a fleck of light. Subconscious reveals consciousness and from the night, day.

It is inevitable that we should consider the two, lightness and darkness, inextricably entwined, latter born of the former, each linked, for eternity, in bonds of the other.

It is from mysterious obsidian shadows that Rembrandt’s philosopher becomes enlightened, a tangled helix staircase revealed in all its wooden glory; three translucent brides evolving from Jan Toorop’s symbolic gloom, which of the light and which the sinister.

There is a paradigm observed in the perpetual birthing of Moore’s rotundity, Pablo’s Classicism – the inevitable bragging chiaroscuro, moulding perception and giving pseudo-reality to Trompe L’Oeil faux, marred only by careless brush stroke.

It is the texture from which the sheen Pop Artist Allen Jones’ high heeled boots brazen a reflection, it is the absence of dark illuminating Ad Reinhardt’s, Zen abstract, black squares canvases, making visible the covert as sight adjusts to nuanced pigment, subtly discerning tone from tone, less dark from darkness.

It is the imaginary darkness of the dark Knight, the glint caught in the eye of all consuming madness which ties Dali to the clown prince, and the night watch’s lantern to that of Kyle Rayner’s darkest night.

Darkness and its opposition, though no longer opposite but sliding, melding, each bred of the other, depth, form, rolling curves revealing and maskings in their dexterity, for eternal darkness remains fecund, perpetually pregnant with its other.

It is the darkness of malaise, the o’er encompassing blanket of shadow from which phoenix hope springs – brother sun and sister moon – there buried in the other, the one, perpetually reaching for its nemesis, hand in fading hand.

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Yusuf Martin – As seen on NTV7 Malaysian national television and heard on BFM Radio; Philosophy graduate. Post Grad in Art History & Theory. Post Grad in Gallery Studies. English man living in Malaysia. Writer. Blogs at http://correspondences-martin.blogspot.com/

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This is a continuation of our Thoughts on Darkness series. Be sure to click on the previous posts as well:

01: Intro
02: Notes on the Subway
03: Darkness Descends
04: Seeing Light In the Dark
05: Metamorphosis
06: Writer’s Block