Over the past weekend, I found myself
in Brisbane looking at pretty lights. These were not just decorative pieces of
coloured glass, shining from dark street corners or winking seductively in some
refurbished inner-city bar. These were lights that crashed and crept, weaved
and wandered, exploded and evaporated, on concrete walls of historic buildings.
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| Lights on a Brisbane building |
The occasion was a campaign called
Colour Me Brisbane. It had been developed to mark the forthcoming G20 Summit
and was offered as free entertainment in various parts of Brisbane’s CBD. On
one night, I was first exposed to the shifting hues of an entire city
landscape, from across the river in Southbank. The second time, I approached
some of the same locations after being at work, in the heart of the city, and
then walking up a few blocks, along a route traversing Charlotte Street, George
Street and, finally Queen Street.
Sitting at various locations, watching
the exterior of Parliament House and the Casino transform before my eyes, like
some high-quality, optical Punch and Judy show, I was reminded, once again, of
our capacity to create. As long as humans have the ability to imagine, we will
never become extinct. It is through using the torch of our imagination that we
come to understand how to shape the world and adapt ourselves to live in it.
The author JG Ballard once said :”I believe in the
power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us,
to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate
ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.”
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| "there is indeed a 'truth within us'..." |
It
is perhaps ironic that a city looking to mark an event all about nations and
their economic viability turns to art to celebrate. While the headlines will no
doubt see the ‘madmen’ trying to instil confidence in us, we should not be so
easily convinced to let go of everything else: there is indeed a ‘truth within us’ and, together, we can shine
a spotlight on those parts of the world that need our faith, our hope and our
love. Oh, and our imagination!
You
see, that’s the thing about lights: they provide contrast in our lives.
Whenever we turn one on, or we see the sunrise over the beach, or a star blazes
bright through the night sky, we are reminded that there also used to be
darkness, night-time and the endless emptiness of space. Our desk lamp, those
sunbeams, the heavenly movement that prompts a thousand wishes – these are all
signs of hope and encouragement.
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| "...that’s the thing about lights: they provide contrast in our lives..." |
It
is true that none of us can hold off the inevitable hand of death or live with
our sense of truth hiding in the cave that is our soul. Instead, we owe it to
ourselves, and also to those who love us, to seek illumination wherever, and
however, we can. To paraphrase Keats: we can be certain of nothing ‘but the
holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination’.
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