Statement July 2004
Blurred Edges: Perspectives on Reality
Science has presented us with a system of signs, formulas and images to explain the unpresentable. It brings to our attention the vastness of the universe through sophisticated technology such as the microscope and telescope and asks us that we reconsider the world. These simularum have been absorbed into our daily lives that now the new and inexplicable have become remarkably familiar.
In Western society , it now seems increasingly apparent that there is a nostalgic longing for reality. The appearance of experiences that are offering this reality to us, are satisfying many who crave the banality of watching the reality experiences of those around us in favour of their own transcendence. The non event has become a contemporary fascination. But our reality has never been more than our own perception of our own existence - "We must all peer out at reality through the clinks of our senses" Immanuel Kant told us. Many have become so accustomed to what they think they know, that they are reluctant to test or question their belief system for fear of disturbing the equilibrium of their own existence. Yet without those tests, inertia and indifference threaten to infect the intellect.
The blurred edges of our reality have been a discussion for philosophers since time in memoriam, but more recently, Jean Baudrillard has informed contemporary thinking on reality by suggesting that itis merely an "experiment". He proposes that we are living in a simulated world in which the principles of scientific evidence and verification are used to convince us that we are encountering reality. But "reality" he says "is nothing more than the apocolypse of simulation".
The art I propose here, allows us to walk the tightrope between our own perceptions of reality and our imagination
It has always been the powerful instinct of man to be in conflict with truth and while art rarely claims the new, it often attempts to take the familiar and make it new to us. It asks that we question our perceptions and senses and rock the equilibrium of our intellect in order to affirm or destroy that which we think we know. When the bridge between reason and imagination is solid enough to hold us, then we can run riot in the most terrifying place in existence - the human mind.
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