What we ChoOse to See
What do artists choose to represent from what they see, and what do we choose to see in what they represent. What do we see? Why do we see the way we do? And what do we not see? How much of this is controlled by our conscious and how much by our subconscious? How much is determined by our existing knowledge and how much by assumptions assimilated from our personal experiences? How does an artist choose what to portray and what not to? And how do we decipher and interpret this information?
It was English art critic, novelist, painter and poet, John Berger, who wrote, in his acclaimed essay Ways of Seeing, that “perspective makes the eye the centre of the visible world” but also that “the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled”. Perception is so much more than the reality in front of our eyes, but rather a complex, and constantly shifting, collision of everything we are and understand it to be. How does this affect our perception of art? How does an artist choose what to portray and what not to? And how do we decipher and interpret this information?
This exhibition features the work of five artists who are exploring some of these questions, and therefore is a chance for the audience to Pause. Think. And look again. To explore the ways in which they choose to see.
Perception is defined as ‘the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted’. I hope that this exhibition will make us aware of how hard it is to see, how much perception plays a part, and that ‘seeing’ requires attention.
Candida Stevens
2019
