From the time that stardust and cosmic material compressed to form this planet we call Earth, one single constant has remained true, unwavering for billions of years: Each day the sun rises and sets across the Earth’s surface. But things have changed over time. With the invention of artificial lights, has also come light pollution, and the erasure of darkness across our many landscapes continues to wreak havoc on the lives of many, human and other-than-human alike. And so, the question emerges: How can we embrace our relationship with the dark?
The new exhibition Jan Tichy: Darkness at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum looks to explore exactly this question. A photographer by trade, Jan Tichy works with light as a medium to approach these conversations around darkness through the museum’s invitation to create a newly commissioned, site-responsive artwork as part of its Signature Commission Series. The series invites artists to not only create work that is specifically designed to dialogue with the building’s iconic Zaha Hadid architecture, but also with the communities the museum serves.
“Photography itself means drawing with light,” said Steven L. Bridges, senior curator and director of curatorial affairs. “Jan is thinking through the language of photography but is really exploding the medium. His inquisitiveness and interest in learning from and with campus partners, combined with his unparalleled artistic vision, all come together in a truly unique project that is at once of a particular time and place, and yet touches on something far deeper within us.”