Stanek Jakub visual artist
What If We Tried to Tame the Light
2026
The title What If We Tried to Tame the Light refers to the widespread belief that light—one of the fundamental tools of human civilization—has been fully mastered by humanity. Artificial lighting has enabled the development of cities, technologies, and nocturnal activity, while at the same time gradually escaping human control. What was meant to serve safety and visibility has become a factor that disrupts biological rhythms, ecosystems, and the human relationship with night.
The project uses this tension as a point of departure for reflecting on the limits of human intervention. Light functions here as a metaphor for many processes that humans have technologically “tamed” without anticipating their long-term, irreversible consequences. The collaboration with a child raises a broader question: how do we speak about responsibility and control in a world where the effects of our actions extend beyond a single generation?
What If We Tried to Tame the Light
In Anticipation of the sun is a visual project examining the experience of stillness and threat within the parent–child relationship in the face of an environmental crisis that remains largely invisible, yet directly affects everyday life.
The project originates from a specific event—a morning when smog made it impossible to leave the house, interrupting the natural rhythm of the day and the relationship with public space. It marks a moment in which environmental violence becomes a bodily and emotional experience, affecting both adults and children. Smog functions here as a symbol of a systemic crisis whose consequences permeate the most intimate spheres of life.
Through photography, drawing, performative actions, and objects created in collaboration with the artist’s child, the project constructs an intergenerational narrative about responsibility, care, and the limited agency of the individual within global processes. Something Stopped Us That Day raises questions about the boundaries of protection, the role of adults, and the challenge of visualizing threats that elude direct perception.
