An aperture ago

"And it all begins with light, blinded by its own brilliance. Unable to see, it stretches its hands toward the world without direction, chasing darkness. Striking a surface, it scatters into dusty particles, wrapping itself around the darkness concealed behind what it touches, and thus a shadow is born. The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow. Its perpetual pursuit of darkness appears in the blurred edge surrounding the shadow—the trace of its longing to make contact. The closer they come, the blurrier it gets. The light knows exactly that ‘almost’ is the farthest distance from its destination. Caressing every corner of the universe except the one thing it desires, the light eventually reaches the eyes. And in that instant, sight collapses into blackness—a sudden eternal aphoticness." (Curatorial text by Suphon Niamkamnoet)

Artist: Nat Setthana / Curator: Suphon Niamkamnoet
Medium: Photographic situation with print on fabric, profile fixture, structure, and video projection
Dimension: Variable
Year: 2026
Site: lair space
The project is part of Scotopia On Screen & Space (2026)
Suppose light has thickness; then any surface of the screen on which light projects would get thicker by the thickness of light.
Suppose the screen is the contact point that the light from the projector must reach to form an image. Reaching the screen that forms an image of darkness would be an attempt that the projected light tries to achieve but never does, for it is the image of its own absence—the impossible one.
Suppose the projected image is illuminated only when the light of projection reaches the screen; the projected light, before reaching the screen, would form no image but the darkness itself. Strangely, the projected light manages to reach the screen of darkness, reaching its impossible screen by never touching one at all. It does so merely in its perpetual pursuit of the screen itself.