what about those hanging lights where it hangs on the wire and drop down to your desired height (adjustable)?
That way, you can have easy maintenance. Only thing is the cleaning of the wire/cable which you can use a vacuum cleaner to reach as high as possible.

Some cables look quite nice. I dont think it will look weird. Besides, your light will hide the cables. The only thing is it might collect dust which you can use a vacuum cleaner to clean it.

Example pics would be as below:
http://www.furniturestoreblog.com/2009/10/...ert_studio.html

http://www.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=htt...%26tbs%3Disch:1

Of course you could find better looking / brighter ones for your home.