We Cannot Climb by Night: Part 2

     I recently spent some time experiencing the paintings in Nikki Toyama's show called Edifice. Her show is about the interaction of light and architecture in an urban setting. The show starts out with a work called Into the Mission which I wrote about here. At the end of the show is another painting called Driving to Tabernacle. These are the biggest two paintings, and are arranged in a way that you can encounter them individually and then side by side. It was while I absorbed these two paintings simultaneously that I began to notice complementary contrasts between them which helped me to approach them each on their own again. These two paintings show the contrasting forces of light and architecture working with and against each other. They show how light, so ephemeral and transparent, can wield a power over the sturdy solidity of the buildings. Nikki shows this power by showing the movement of light. Movement that is simultaneously evanescent and lasting, powerful and delicate, blinding and illuminating.

        The road slopes away from the center of itself, the light that streams onto the road seems to function as motion lines. The upper surface has strong lines that follow the movement of the vehicles and tilts in such a way that we feel rapid movement through the tunnel. The vehicles move forward and are enveloped in the light, almost as if in just a few more moments they will disappear from sight. Interestingly, the painting is able to make the viewer part of the scene. There are two somewhat subtle vertical lines in the painting. One in the bottom left of the painting and the other on the right wall at the very end of the tunnel. These two lines parallel each other, but they are not completely vertical. The one on the right is part of the tunnel's structure, but the one in the bottom left is not obviously recognizable. It serves to help frame the picture in such a way that pulls the viewer forward and into the picture. The red of the taillights stand out against the black and white in one of the only colored parts of the picture. The only other colorful part of the painting is the warm yellow glow of the doors lining the street in the background. 

      The painting pulls the viewer in because of the vortex of bright white light. It simultaneously streams into the tunnel and pulls you out of it into the open. This painting is not static; it moves and moves the eye. Like Into the Mission, this painting has two components. Unlike Into the Mission, which had two separate fields and energies, both of the two components run together seamlessly. The first section is the actual tunnel. The tunnel is the feature that the artist uses to show the interaction of building and light. The tunnel takes up most of the painting; it dominates the foreground, and is the largest subject in the work. Large and dominating as it is, the tunnel gives way to the light. In fact the tunnel serves the light. The only function of the tunnel is to show the light. If there was no tunnel, the painting would be blinding, all that would be there was a piercing white light. However, with the tunnel the light is able to reveal itself without getting lost. The light and the building are dependent upon each other in this work. Without the light, you could not see the tunnel and without the tunnel you could not see the light. 

    This work is all about forward movement. The viewer is moving through a tunnel, the cars ahead are moving forward, the light draws the eye into an indiscernible distance. The fact that the doors are the only thing visible in the background seems to indicate movement also: one portal leading to another. What does this movement of light against the cold tunnel mean? The interplay could be making a metaphysical or existential statement, just think of how many metaphors a tunnel can be used for. This could represent death, or progress, or even time. Of course the painting could also be a capture of a moment in time, not to mention the possibility that it's both. The key to this lies in seeing this together with Into the Mission. The stillness of those two cars heading to the mission explodes into action here. They speed ahead; even the tunnel can't hold them for long. They now have the light they require to move, and move they do.