Member-only story
Spirituality
There’s Light In The Darkness If You Wait For It
One of my favorite places on earth is Naoshima island, one of 3,000 islands that dot the inland sea of Japan.
It’s an island rich in art, from late Monet waterlilies to site-specific installations of contemporary art. Many of the buildings are designed by legendary architect Tadao Ando.
One of his buildings was a mysterious rectangle, black and windowless. It was clad in what looked to be charcoal — cypress burned to resist sunlight, water, and fire.
A long serpentine hallway led me into a room that was jet black — blacker than a moonless night, printer’s ink, or a hunk of coal. I was blinded in an instant. Disoriented, I shuffled into the vast and silent darkness.
After a few minutes, as I crept forward, I saw a faint glow opposite me. The fuzz got brighter and brighter with time until I stood in front of a wall-sized box of daffodil-yellow light.
The room was not dark after all.
Its light was visible only after fifteen minutes when the rods and cones in my eyes had adjusted. There was no way to rush, hack or shortcut this process. This James Turrell artwork could only be seen with eyes that had been opened with time.
