Falling in Love with Shadow and Light
A subjective experience of art
The last time I visited a museum prior to the pandemic was at the San José Museum of Art, where a friend had put together an event featuring mixture of poetry and music. During a break between the sets of performances, I wandered the exhibits, checking out what the museum had on display.
When I wander through a museum, I observe it from my own subjective point of view, not much caring whether the work is considered important or interesting from a cultural or historical perspective. I look for work that speaks to me, that hooks something deep within my chest and tugs.
That night, I found myself standing before Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral, a found wood sculpture comprised of architectural elements, crates, and other pieces, assembled into geometric chambers and painted entirely black. It captivated me immediately.
Describing herself of as an “architect of shadow,” Nevelson was an American sculptor who created both indoor and outdoor works of art. According to the museum’s description, she “believed that her wall arrangements had a spiritual quality and could bring ‘the fourth dimension or elsewhere, into the here and now of the third dimension’ thus suggesting a spatial continuum between the viewer, the object, and the greater universe.”
