Art and a Cabinet

✨Brightest stars in the darkest times. ✨

Last November 2025, I came across this cabinet in a museum in Porto, at Fundação de Serralves (Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art).

At first glance, it is just furniture.
Wood. Doors. Hinges.
An object meant to store, to conceal, to organise what we do not want constantly visible.

But then there is the stone beneath it.
Smooth. Rounded. Weight-bearing.

The cabinet stands open, emptied of content, held in balance by something that does not belong to it, yet makes its openness possible.

Standing in front of it, the piece felt less like storage and more like an invitation. An empty interior. No instruction. No explanation imposed. Just space, sustained by weight and restraint.

Art can be this kind of light. Not illumination through spectacle, but through balance. By showing how openness is not weightless. How space needs support. How fragility depends on something steady beneath it.

In times drawn to certainty and display, this work does something else. It slows you down. It reminds you that attention, care, and meaning are often held in quiet equilibrium.

Perhaps this is what art offers in darker moments. Not answers, but orientation.
A sense that even what is open and unfinished can remain held.

Sometimes, the brightest light is the one that helps us notice what keeps things in balance.

#BrightestStars #SacredOrdinary #ArtAsLight #Care #Balance #Attention