Hannah Tan

A New Light

Oil and acrylic on linen

140 cm x 140 cm

2022

“A New Light” explores the interplay between darkness and light in the depths of human experience. It is about awakening to the light when we step into the inner space of darkness within ourselves and accept what is raw, messy and transparent there. 

The space holds “roots” of our fears, doubts, vulnerabilities, loneliness, death and ugliness - an inevitable part of our life’s experience. However, within the depths of what we fear or reject, there is a profound luminosity waiting to be seen. The Queen of the Night flower, blooming only in the dark of the night, symbolises this luminosity: the quiet strength, grace and hope that transform our life in a way that does not deny darkness but accepts it as part of the whole.

This work aims to depict that delicate balance, that moment of knowing that light and dark are no longer opposites but necessary counterparts.