The Lights in the Deep Dark Night Lights and the Peripheral Sentinel What do you see when driving at night? Travel Sketches by metamodernist artist JJFBbennett The night swallows the road long before the mind settles into the rhythm of the drive. Out here, where the bitumen cuts a narrow ribbon through the vast dark of the Australian bush , the headlamps carve out only the immediate seconds ahead—a tunnel of white glare against an ocean of shadow. Yet, vision at night is never truly confined to what sits directly in the beams. In the peripheral sweep, just beyond the hard edge of the headlights where the eucalyptus canopy dissolves into the black sky, the landscape breathes with another kind of presence. My Night Lights Are On Reflected softly on the wet glass of the side window, the world folds inward and outward at once. The rain-streaked pane catches the amber glow of the dashboard and smears it against the deep gloom outside, blurring the boundary between the cabin and the sc...
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The Unseen Shadows
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In The Unseen Shadows, the viewer is presented with a thought-provoking exploration of the psychological inter-relationship of creativity. This artwork delves into the role of subconscious emotional traits as a catalyst for malevolent creativity, shedding light on the unseen shadows that can influence our positioning to enact creativity.
The portrait that emerges from this is both compelling and paradoxical. On the one hand, creativity is often celebrated for its positive impact, but on the other hand, it can also be shrouded in malevolent shadows. The artwork seeks to correlate the inferences between powerful and regressive symbols of harmful creativity with cognitive and motivational facets of the grip fueled by creativity's darker side. The intricate dance of shadows draws on Plato's cave allegory, with oppression acting as a distorted puppeteer that can cast a veil of gloom over our cognitive impulses.
The emotional aspects can cast a unique shadow by continually adding layers of complexity. Although the intention offers insights, they are layered with limitations. Like Plato's chained prisoners, our view of reality can be obscured, and self-reported measures can lead to potential self-restrictions. The complexity of the artwork's surface emphasises the possible inclusion of other puppeteers, their personality traits and imposed environmental factors. At its core, The Unseen Shadows postulates a cyclical relationship that fosters imposition and malevolent creativity, and how each exacerbates the other into a perpetual dance of semi-transparent shadows.
This work aligns with and extends the broader collection of my previous psychological portraits, emphasising the transformative influence of even the subtlest strokes of containing human behaviour. Overall, The Unseen Shadows is a sobering reminder that strategic hooks can profoundly impact our creative impulses, casting a gloomy veil over others and restricting our ability to see the world outside of our fabricated cave. Breaking free from this cycle of shadows is crucial to unlocking the full potential of our creativity and leading fulfilling lives.
This artwork is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. Distribution and/or modification of the artwork without written permission of the sponsor is prohibited.
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