A dilapidated house with broken windows, a fractured façade and a roof in disrepair. Inside, a glow of light and a tree that emerges through a busted window. Two ravens, often a symbol of loss, sit atop the branches of the tree.
In Samuel Bak’s "Friends of the Night", we are struck by an atmosphere of abandonment. Who are “friends of the night”? What happened to the house that carries the surname “Bak” on it, and more importantly, to those who once called it home?
In "Night", Elie Wiesel writes that “every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer.” Has night permanently fallen? Beyond the dark, ominous clouds, we see a slender blue sky. Is this a sign of hope? Will this darkness pass? In "Dawn", Wiesel writes, “War is like night … It covers everything.”
What is absent in Bak’s "Friends of the Night"? What has darkness covered? While there are no humans present in the image, nature continues—the trees, mountains, clouds, sky and birds. The artist seems to be saying that the world is here for us: we may destroy each other, but nature will renew—with us or without.
Dr. Mark Celinscak, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Omaha,
BAK a Day, June 28, 2023
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Repro: Hindman
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