Memory and pattern : an interrogation of the privacy of consciousness through visual practice

Abstract

In less than three years, I have accumulated over a million words in journal entries. The written outpourings constitute an intensely private realm, and yet I have sought to express the essence of the content and process of my written records, providing it with a visual form. My work features wooden constructions, including objects resembling letters of the alphabet, onto which I have transcribed hand-written fragments of text from the journal. The central investigation of my project concerns a dichotomy between creative expression and the privacy of consciousness, exploring the capacity of realms of creative expression to deal with this tension. Through artistic practice and through reference to other work, I have been evaluating the potential of employing a visual language, incorporating written text, to transcend the dilemma of expressing that which lies in a highly personal realm, but is nevertheless indicative of a craving to reach beyond the barrier of loneliness and isolation. The voice meanders in an incessant dialogue between concealment and revelation that finds its visual metaphor in the palimpsest. The creation of a haphazardly organized alphabet demonstrates the awkwardness of language and its limitations as a tool to penetrate beyond the surface of perception to objective truths, while the volume of written text expresses the relentless nature of a search for personal truth, which is specifically focussed on understanding the dialogue between ones perception and that which one perceives, in particular, embodiments of consciousness that exist outside of ones own. I have utilized moving images to enhance and magnify the issue of subjectivity. This component was explored at a later stage of my research, and marks a significant development in my thinking, in which I encountered a more optimistic understanding of the potential fluidity of subjectivity, distinct from earlier inclinations to regard the subjective realm as a fixed enclosure. The work's function is to glorify the dilemma without solving it, aiming to induce in the viewer a mesmerized awareness of the mystery and complexity of human experience.