Art in Dark Times

“One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.” That’s Maria Prophetissa via Marie-Louise Von Franz. As one does, Von Franz spun the mysterious saying to suit her own purposes. "Out of the One comes Two, out of Two comes Three, and from the Third comes the One as the Fourth."

These sayings come to mind when I think of We:.Three. That’s the moniker of an effort involving three essential people in my life pictured above (left to right) Sarah Dark, Jessica Eichman, and Cary Gibson. You’re invited to the opening reception (This Thursday, August 28th, 6-8PM) for TRIALOGUE: Three women artists and 18 moons.

What they’re unveiling this week arose out of a piece called “Throughline” (See detail below), a textile work they composed of canvas strips representing each of Metro Nashville’s districts. The strips are variously dyed, as Gibson observes, “to reflect the river stone, limestone, trees, and water native to our area…The weaving of the canvas means that half of this handiwork is rendered invisible. Just as many lives, histories & contributions are unseen, much work in Nashville’s communities goes overlooked and uncompensated. This half-visible work is a tribute to their unrecognized hours of labor and love.”

The collective feat of attentiveness of “Throughline” marked the beginning of a collaborative process that brings us to TRIALOGUE. Over eighteen months, pieces were exchanged, marked up, painted over according to the whims of each artist, and then sent back around until a consensus emerged concerning completion. This involved, in Eichman’s parlance, “a shit ton of trust.”

Consider “The Turning.”

TRIALOGUE is an exercise in active vulnerability as well as a meditation on power, authority, trust, and the taking on of roles. Dark calls it “an alchemy of attention and intention” in which viewer and maker alike partake in “a harnessing of hunch” as an experiment in harmony.

Speaking of which, here’s “Harmony.”

Be warned. TRIALOGUE is not a closed circuit. What We:. Three have woven together is an invite into new further weaving. The play is the thing. And their long-haul game of call and response is one without frontiers. Their voyage of discovery is an open table inviting your gifts of discernment, exuberance, and expectation. A hands-on experience.

So come out. Don’t be shy. There is—Can you feel it?—fear and foreboding among us. But there is also art, the act of integration, to undertake in these dark times of ours. There is good work to be done. Magic, in fact. Get ready to be amazed.