Out of Our Heads - Eye Bloom
I have maintained a fascination with the structure and function of the eye throughout many stages of my career. Drawings on this page portray the eye as an organism that projects vision into the receptive environment. It takes the form of both a mystic flower and a source of eruptive force.
The physical form of the eye and its sense of anchorage within the head provide a fascinating contrast to the boundless nature of vision. Although we assume our eyes are integral to our body, their outer surface is shared by ‘the skin of the world’. Our eyelids open like flower petals to a sense of awakening that is not related to materiality at all.
Many of my images imagine that the ‘seen world’ is phantasmagoria that emanates from the eye.
Drawings attempted to question how the eye exchanges a perceptive understanding of what is inside and outside the body. I was interested in the opposing sensations of projecting vision at the outside world and feeling that the eye is receiving information.
Some drawings describe the passage of sight into hollow spaces behind the eyes, through secret channels such as those depicted in Ghost Hand Writing.
Other works suggest the nature of vision as a physically obtrusive experience, in which the surface of the eye is penetrated by the hardened forms of its own awareness.
Alternatively, vision is gestated within subterranean regions and emitted from the combustible orifice of the eye.
The following group of works attempted to describe a type of ‘eye trap’ that ensnares night-vision with superficial illumination. The works document the spoiling of night vision—the natural adaptation of the eye to darkness—and the enhanced sensitivity that entails. This concept is further explored in Luminous Night.
A dark bloom is sacrificed to an artificial glare that renders vision senseless. The radiance is depicted as the sharp teeth of the trap around the edge of the eye.
The body of the noble soul has expired within the dark space behind the eye, unable to migrate beyond the glare that burns away the night vision.
Explore this theme
1. Introduction
2. Vault
3. Hatch
4. Eye Bloom (You Are Here)
5. Bodily Forms