Using the Subconscious and Ancient Art, Apr 2008-Oct 2009
People often think that consciousness is something over and above the physical workings of the human brain. In fact, there is much more going on in our brains than we are consciously aware of; consciousness is just a portion of our mental activity. The mind is a system for representing, predicting and interacting with the world. A large part of what the mind does involves maintaining a model of the world, and this includes a model of the mind itself, and this is what we call consciousness. Analysis of conscious thought can reveal a lot about oneself and the world, but we can also investigate beyond this to reveal information contained in our minds of which we are not consciously aware. If each of us contains a model of the world, by accessing this we can find out about the world.
A lot of my art is about using the subconscious, as well as primitive or ancient influences to find deeper truths about the human experience. I am very interested in concepts that are common to the human experience - things that we share with our ancient ancestors. In exploring these, I hope to understand more about our place in the universe, and the meaning of human concepts and the lives of individuals.
In studying mythology, one can see common ideas throughout the world. These include gods and divine kings, heroes, an afterlife, an underworld, a great flood, a quest for a great object (often a container of some sort), the fall of a civilisation, a mother caring for a divine child, the son as successor to the father, a trickster god, celestial visitors bringing knowledge and civilisation, celebration of (and deification of) celestial events and the movement of the sun and moon.
Concepts and symbols that appear throughout our history or that have evolved independently in several locations or times tell us something about ourselves - about the way our minds work and about our environment. They are a result of the processes of human thought applied to common features of the world and a human's living environment, and they tell us more about the human race than they do about history. In my artwork, I frequently try to portray concepts that are not simply peculiar to my own subconscious, but archetypes - symbolic concepts common to many people's experiences. These archetypes are a reflection of ourselves and can be seen in the art of primitive and ancient cultures, as well as emerging naturally from the artistic process of using improvisation and instinct to guide the work.
By working in this way (using improvisation, mythology, and psychological archetypes), I hope to tap into a genetic heritage and shared set of memories and ancient conditioning learnt by the human race through thousands of generations of living in numerous conditions and environments. These leave us with an echo of the past within ourselves, which comes to us as mythology, as instinct, as convention and tradition. With this approach, I hope to bring my own life and thoughts into the greater context of the human experience.
In artistic terms, the images tend to be simplified and stylistic in my attempts to simplify and to extract the essential nature of a concept, at the same time as making it universal and flexible in its interpretation. I find the results are often reminiscent of some cave paintings and primitive or tribal art, and this in itself is an interesting discovery. Since much of this work stems from subconscious thought, it is as much a voyage of self-discovery for me as it is a conscious expression of ideas and aesthetics. As such, I am not necessarily privy to an absolute and authoritative description of the meaning and content of each painting I produce. I have to interpret it, like anyone else, albeit from an advantaged position. Art is a way of showing other people how you view the world - what you consider interesting, what you consider important and how your mind works. In so doing, you also elucidate these things for yourself.
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