One discovers the light in darkness

Tavares Strachan exhibition

One discovers the light in darkness,

That is what darkness is for, but

Everything in our lives depends upon

How we bear the light.

It is necessary, while in darkness,

To know that there is a light somewhere

To know that in oneself, waiting

To be found, there is a light.

These wonderful words by the artist Tavares Strachan glow in blue neon lettering at the start of his exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. Occasionally they are amplified in the visitor’s mind via a voice-over, a deep voice reading the poem, booming and filling the small room from an unlocalised place, just sound floating on air. I found all this very moving. I stayed there a long time, standing, sitting, walking, moving off and coming back again as if to the magnetic hub of the exhibition. They are words that resound so deeply in me. I, too, know that darkness, and I alsoknow there is a light within. You need to know both those things to write words like that.

Strachan was born in the Bahamas and now lives in New York. …