Every moment we are dealing with duality. Like opposite forces continuously acting on us, they create a tension. This tension moves us into action, to search for harmony, a moment of balance.
We find a balance between the disheveled and orderly in our surroundings, we work towards acquiring wealth enough to avoid our personal definitions depravity, try to be social enough to avoid being labeled an outcast, and we seek meaning in life so as to not feel lost in this world.
This balancing of chaos and order, and moving between tension and balance goes in cycles. This cycle makes life interesting - the push & pull, ups & downs keep life exciting. If life moved entirely predictably, there wouldn’t be a need for ‘action’ or a ‘search’ for balance, and that would make it monotonous or boring.
If the tension is high and the cycles are many, it causes strain - because life is happening to you. However as an observer to these cycles, when removed from it - we again lean in and enjoy the experience. Think different forms of art. A protagonists struggles and overcoming of it becomes drama in movie plots, the unpredictability of notes against the underlying order of the tempo creates anticipation in music, being a live witness in the same room to the story unfolding between people yet knowing they are characters on stage creates an exhilaration in theatre.
How can this kind of tension be created in visual art?
How can we bring opposites together?
How far can you push the forces creating the tension and yet find balance?