Years back when I spent my creative energies on making paintings, drawings, and prints, exploring ambiguity always excited me. Is that foreground or background? Is that just a texture or a player in a narrative? Is that an isolated entity or a fragment of a larger whole? Can they be both?
That still hasn’t really changed for me in my music.
For me, this photographic print (issued in 1862-1863) displays features common to the music of some of my favorite musicians. There’s a background texture that’s almost infinite in detail. There’s an echo of the primary figure, but that echo is almost invisible at first glance. And of course there’s an ambiguity to that main figure that allows its purpose or meaning to shift with my state of mind.
There’s plenty more, for sure. But it’s better for you that you find them yourself.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Bas-Relief colossal, à Palenque; cote gauche de la cour du Palais.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1862 – 1863. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-1281-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99