Balka's Box

“For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world's Light."
John 9:5 (The Message)

It was a black box.
30 metres long and 13 metres high.
A big, black, box, issuing forth an invitation to walk inside; to be enveloped by the silence and darkness contained therein. With only the felt-lined walls for safety, intrepid explorers took small, faltering steps into the darkness.

The world, as Balka explores in his 2009 installation ‘How it is’, is a very dark place indeed. The piece itself presents a commentary upon what it is to be human.

“Balka intends to provide an experience for visitors which is both personal and collective, creating a range of sensory and emotional experiences through sound, contrasting light and shade, individual experience and awareness of others, perhaps provoking feelings of apprehension, excitement or intrigue.”

It is easy to see that the world we live in can be an incredibly oppressive place. And yet, as with the Big Black Box, there are places where shards of light bring transformation, hope, excitement and peace. Life can bring with it isolation, fear and loneliness – and so often there are no felt walls with which to feel one’s way to safety.

What might it mean for us to be in a place where all of our fears and isolation and doubt are contained and exposed; only to turn around and realise that there is indeed Light. Our physical act of repentance (or about-turning) bringing us back once again to the reality that there is transformation and hope and excitement and peace.

As Bono is often quoted as saying, ‘The job of the church is to tear away the corners of darkness to let the light of Christ shine through.’

It was a black box, issuing forth its invitation to step inside and to be enveloped in the silence and darkness. To be read and known and exposed. In the black boxes of our lives, I wonder where the torn corners of light may be found. I wonder where we have the audacity to scrape away at the edges of the darkness and to see the light shine through.