psychological alchemy

sonyarademeyer
Aug 19
2 min read

A few years ago, I had the great privilege of spending dedicated time with Ian Marley - then terminal - whilst briefly caring for him. Ian was one of those exceptionally gifted Creatives, and he only wore black.

Sitting at his bedside, we started a conversation around 'becoming monochromatic', and to be honest, I didn't fully comprehend the magnitude of what he was trying to relay to me at the time. I remember his distinct words: "When you become monochromatic, you finally understand". It was unclear to me what Ian really meant, or whether he was trying to relay something vaster through the sea of morphine which he was needing to navigate . Regretfully, if I had fully comprehended this powerful understanding, I would perhaps have been able to delve with him into this particular psychological alchemy.

For some time now, I have organically been nudging towards monochromatism. I have noticed it in the way that I feel comfortable dressing, and I am starting to notice similiar decision-making with regard to photography. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I am beginning to self-curate my own monochromatic magic. It is an emotional alignment of sorts, but with direct connections to notions of 'time'...not in the western sense of time as commodity (etc) ... but time as timelessness, as emotional space and as mirror.

Listening to the Kenyan poet and podcaster #mumbipoetry - with references to John Samuel Mbiti (1913 - 2019) , author of African Religions and Philosophy (1969) - I was struck what the impact of colonisation has been on notions of African time. According to Mbiti, as relayed by mumbipoetry, time only exists if it is lived through an event, contrasting severely with western notions of time with its' particular focus on future endeavours etc.

Unknowingly to me at the time I imagined what remains through time, slowness and stillness my exhibition clearly addresses notions of time. It clearly calls for a slowing down of tempo, madness and chaos in order to reflect and inhabit a re-imagined place in the world. A world where snails teach us new ways of Being, where over-stimulation is averted and even perhaps navigating us towards the important quietness of monochromatic time; particularly now.

Ian did not only wear black. His intricate, charcoal drawings of darkened inner forests were landscapes of hidden emotional states ... places of safety where he could hide, as he conveyed to me closer to his passing ... a place to breathe ... a world where reflection can re-align with the non-spoken. A metaphorical forest that, in its sovereign monochromatic alchemy, is physically able to withstand the floodwaters of historical time.

I can feel that Ian is proud of me, for finally understanding the Power of One.

NOTE: what remains through time slowness and stillness is up until 24 August 2025 at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Mangaung/Bloemfontein (South Africa).