Amani Willett — Invisible Sun

Review by Lee Halvorsen •

The Japanese have a word that perfectly describes how I imagine Willett approached making this book…”Komorebi” (木漏れ日) often translated as sunlight filtering through leaves, creating patterns of dancing light and shadow, and, importantly, a feeling of discovering light in the darkness. In an Afterword, which is a large sticky on the inside back cover, Willett describes the impact of two childhood medical event traumas, suppressed for years but resurfacing, triggered by adult health problems. During intense psychotherapy he encountered vivid, unnerving images, visions of himself, including his younger self. Willett describes his creative process for this work as an exploration of the space between memory and embodiment, where the body holds what the mind forgets. The book gives shape to those fragments of memories and is a visual interpretation or bridge to the unspoken.

The images are a fascinating combination of photographic styles…abstract, surreal, portrait, nature, realistic and more. The look and feel of the book is comforting…easy to hold, a hardback with one foldout page, superb paper…the volume itself is a work of art.

Although there are a variety of photographic styles throughout the book, the undercurrent of the combination is abstract…imagine waking up from a deep sleep or coming out of anesthesia after surgery. What’s real? What’s almost real? Who are these other people? Who and where am I? Willett’s images trace that twilight zone between distant memory and the harsh clarity of now. To represent his vision of this space he’s photographed his children, employed experimental photographic processes, created AI-generated visions, and made dark, filtered landscapes.

When I first paged through the book I was struck by the number of pages with flocks of white birds in a black sky. When reading the book, page-by-page, I used those bird pages as points to break the tension of the preceding pages, to give my brain a rest. Then it dawned on me, the bird pages may have represented the beginning and/or end of a phase in Willett’s treatment and recovery.

Prior to the first bird flight pages, the images are abstract youngsters, fire, dead flowers…then the birds. The next section’s images contain what might be cozy scenes of houses, landscapes, children, and then birds again. The next images include spider webs, smoke, fire, abstract children, a person seeming to jump into an abyss, a man staring off into the black of surrounding page, and then perhaps a tornado. Then many pages of birds.

On the opening page of the book, Willett quotes part of a verse from T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land.

There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

Many interpretations of Eliot’s poem are available, perhaps Willett is describing the enduring presence of the past and the relationship with his ancestors. These are not all happy thoughts (fire, abyss, faded children, etc.) until after the last flight of birds when the mood changes. This is when Willett tells us:

It was a quiet thing,
This new beginning.
Like watching a tree bud in March
And realizing you’d forgotten
It could do that.

His message to us is followed by images closer to reality and hope, more serene tones and content. The book ends with a soft focus, a single white dove.

This fascinating book challenges the reader to imagine the psychological journey Willet is on and the conflict and resolution in the process. I imagine the book could be a step to closure or understanding the trauma of the past. The images and sequencing provide an insight into Willett’s crossings.

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Lee Halvorsen is assistant editor, writer and visual artist living in Virginia.

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Invisible Sun by Amani Willett

Artist: Amani Willett living and working in Boston, MA

Publisher: Dust Collective

Design by Emily Sheffer

Website for purchasing book at Dust Collective

Printed and bound in New England

Language: English

Hardcover with lay flat, stitched binding, 124 pages, 64 images, 7.5 x 10 inches, ISBN 979-8-9893350-6-0

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