One painting, diminishing light *twisight
Tableau noir - Oil on canvas - 20" x 34in - 2011
Paintings preference for clarity over discernment.
In seeking arguments for why painting has shunned our rod based night vision, one might argue that while painting was the cultural norm, it was also the norm only to go out in daylight hours, hence that one was apt to only see art within the day time. One might also argue that with the rise of the social usage of indoor lighting, that one was less apt to be found surrounded by darkness, and so art embodied these social norms of viewing under lit conditions.
It might also be posited that in the brightness of daylight, dreaming is about aspiring, while in the moonlight, dreaming descends into conspiracies. One might surmise that our rod based night vision is about the dangers on the periphery, about things that move askance, lurking on the frontiers of our consciousness Not so much about things sleeping unrecognized in our unconscious, but about things slinking about in our pre-conscious, among the myths and legends of dangers that need be spoken of in hushed tones, for fear of awakening their attention towards us.
To ignore our capacity to move through the realm of night, seems to hinder our understanding rather then expand it. But then we once spoke in hushed tones about God, and now when we banter about god, we have lessened our respect of the subject- making it somehow frivolous. Possibly the ways of knowing found in the realms of the unspoken, may be best understood unspoken. To speak of that in flux, may require that we use a language itself in flux. To address our night vision, might require the embodiment of the characteristics of these pigments.
Even though these pigments which our rod vision can see, have been available for years, yet artists still favour conal vision over rod vision. Is it simply a quest for focused clarity, or an unspoken avoidance of those stories and ways of knowing that shift in a flux of change? Seems to me we need both, as much as we have developed the capacity to see and discern both through our distinct vision systems.
It is in the night that we can see the stars above regardless of whatever other fears we project or do exist in the obscurity. Artists continued avoidance of the discernment's of our night vision, should be a conscious decision. The reasons why we do so, and have done so throughout the history of art, probably have much to teach us.
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