Connections/Dark Energy

My name is Navina Haidar and I'm a curator in the Islamic department. I'm going to be exploring the question of "dark energy." It becomes apparent

that certain works of art are all the more compelling, and all the more riveting, because they

radiate something that we can call "dark energy," that's not negative, but

really represents a kind of power. Either the subject matter being extraordinary and sometimes disturbing;

a mood that's captured; or a kind of

restlessness in the minds of these artists that is often expressed in their work.

El Greco's skies above Toledo: that white edge around the clouds brings

this electric light filled with some kind of supernatural energy which is bursting forth from his canvases.

The sense of mystery in this painting is quite strong. The contrast between darkness and light, the isolation of the little figure. When I learned it was in fact a border, a somewhat contested border between Israel and Lebanon here, it made it all the more interesting and meaningful as an image, but even without that knowledge it's still a very, very powerful image.

The Tibetan image of the god of death, Yama, is really the incorporation of all the processes of the universe. Creation, preservation, and destruction.

When you see a fierce image like this, you're not meant to be terrified. Recognizing

them in some sense is a way of accepting them, and worshiping them, and realizing that they will come, just as the other forces will.

This Chamunda sculpture is clearly terrifying, but to me what's so darkly energetic about it

is that little scorpion image, to our very small human point of view, unnerves you more than the whole deity itself. This most fantastic

painting portrays the goddess Bhaivari, which is the fierce manifestation of Shiva.

What's so powerful about it is the fact that something that's utterly unreal has been articulated or expressed in a way that is so realistic. Her

lips which spew blood are drawn back revealing teeth. Her eyes bulge and of course they're not real eyes and neither are the spear-tipped horns that emerge from her head.

If you look at the way that corpse's toes are tensed, it's as though the life has just gone out of him.

There's an obvious psychological association between certain types of images and dark energy even if they're not dark images so to speak. This Great Indian Fruit Bat probably led a very innocent life eating mangoes and lychees, and yet because we insist on associating bats with darkness, we can't help thinking, "Well, there's a dark scary bat."

I love the thought of this posh European world, just about to enter the Renaissance, where there's going to be beautiful things happening on every level of society. But this little

dark man makes you suddenly feel that wildness and darkness and savagery is right 'round the corner, and no matter how beautifully gilded your vessel below is, that reminder of another world, far more elemental, is so brilliantly kind of conveyed.

The still life with the skull, which contrasts of course with all those symbols of wealth and life around it. And the fact that the front teeth are actually missing gives it a very sinister sort of grin. You can't quite make up your mind sometimes whether you're meant to laugh or be scared.

These demonic figures, they're filled with not only dark energy, but dark humor. There's something

slightly comical about the way the limbs are arranged and the kind of backwards stance of the figure.

And yet, if you were to look closely, they're actually pretty terrifying figures. Dark energy

is that razor's edge between the inner world and the outer world, the observed world and the imagined world.

It's on all these borderlines, and that's why it's energy. It's sort of without form, but something that is very much in all of us

if we stop for a moment to feel it.