The exhibition gave off a neo-noir air that inspired the puzzle solver within me to try and figure out  its secrets. Why mount a mask upon the wall and why did it almost stare at me? Why did I feel  disturbed by a rocking chair? What was buried beneath all that dirt? I wasn’t successful in finding  any answers but I do know how it made me feel. I have tried to convey my thoughts below:

Dark events create dark times, like a rock thrown out in the still water below.

You don’t know what lurks beneath the surface and how long the ripples will travel but there you  are in the aftermath regardless. Darkness is a vicious creature strangling and engulfing every thing  in its path, it doesn’t discriminate and it doesn’t always make its destruction clear.  It comes in many forms, trauma, depression, rage. You could even call it by its basic definition, a  lack of illumination or an absence of light.

The world has always cried for balance and, in the end, she’ll always come for payment. Looking  at an object or person will always reveal the two moving side by side as if playing a game of cat  and mouse. Darkness will always dominate when the stars out and light will overpower when the  sun once again rises, but both are always present.

If this balance applies in the literal sense then why not in the personified? After unfortunate events  dark times are sure to follow but eventually the light will return to you. It may not be as strong as  before or it may take a while but it will come.

Although darkness for the most part is something people try to avoid it does have its seductive  qualities that play to our natural human curiosity. We express it through art and music, through  tales of dread and even through the toxic social media culture that has spread through our  existence like a virus. How have you been seduced? I know you have, we all have in one way or  another. Maybe you were a bully in school, maybe you’re obsessed with true crime or maybe you  just like living on the line between madness and sanity. We chase darkness even from the safety  of our living rooms with horror movie marathons, reaching out in the dark for a hand to hold when  the axeman chops down the door. Addiction to the things that thrill is a dangerous delight indeed,  a vein we’ll all pierce at least once in our lifetime.

We are capable of great things and we are capable of evil things. We are the duality of the  deepest underworld and the most heavenly skies.

There was an energy in the room when I entered and it was one of calm. At times I felt  disturbed by the layers presented but then relished in the beauty and precision of Matt’s work.