#18: Reflect on Reflections
Let the sunshine in, on, and around.
Instructions
Take a moment to notice reflections around you.
Find the light source and the bounce points.
Notice the shape and edges.
Document or draw the light.
Boing the Brightness?
Spring is happening here in New York, and that means a ton of bright light. In the past few years there’s been a bloom of thin, tall glass buildings in the city. Though these buildings are overall a blight and have massive negative implications on life, the rare delight I find is how they bounce and reflect light in unexpected ways.
Speaking of bright light, remember how the former President thought that sunlight could be put inside of a body and kill a virus? As a cleanser for reminding you of that, here’s a video of a cat that sounds like a Southern Gentleman.
Image: Well hi, yourself!
Artists and Reflection
Looking at and bouncing light is one of the oldest artistic concepts and tricks, usually involving mirrors. In many ways, film itself is a medium devoted to capturing and projecting light. When I worked at MoMA, one of the most impactful shows for me was by the artist Olafur Elliason, whose work often deals with light and perception.
Image: Installation view of the exhibition, "Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson". April 20, 2008–June 30, 2008. IN2036.10. Photograph by Jonathan Muzikar. MoMA
He’s recently moved into more political art about climate change but still uses perception to create a different type of space to inhabit. Here he is speaking about the space created by art and culture, and the possibility to bridge the individual and the collective in a non-polarizing space:
What is between thinking and doing? I would say there is experience. And experience is not just a kind of entertainment in a non-causal way. Experience is about responsibility. Taking part in the world is really about sharing responsibility. So art, in that sense, I think holds an incredible relevance in the world in which we’re moving into, particularly right now.
Let the Light Shine
Light is a reminder that, especially here in New York, we’ve survived the cold of winter. And the reflections on the ground, on the water, and all around us given a fleeting moment of reminder that we are alive. John Green, in his amazing podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed, wrote in May 2020 about a goalie in a soccer match but somehow worked his way to this gem:
It occurs to me that you are listening in my future, a fact that has always been true but now seems relevant. Maybe you are listening in a future so distant from my present that this is over. I mean, I know it will never fully end—the next normal will be different from the last one. But there will be a next normal, and I hope you are living in it, and I hope I am living in it with you. But in the meantime, we have to live in this…. You can’t see the future coming—not the terrors, for sure—but you also can’t see the moments of light-soaked joy that await each of us.
I hope you’re getting a chance to enjoy the light amidst all of the terror of the world. Take care out there and help out as best you can to share some of that light.
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