Redundant Perception: An Artist's Enquiry
(2017)
author(s): Christopher Hollins
published in: Research Catalogue
Living things often display redundant and unused appendages of physical characteristics that once served to give them an advantage in the struggle for life. Examples would be the flightless wings of penguins and ostriches, and the vestige of a tail in we humans; which is made of three small loosely fused bones called the coccyx. This is known as the ‘tail-bone’ because it is considered the remains of the full tail that our ape-like ancestors once possessed. It is also probable that our brains generate the remaining impulses from an older redundant power of perception that once gave our distant ancestors an ‘animal’ awareness of objects and events. This experience of mind now lies buried behind our modern day thought processes, and for any artist aware of this the implications are that the way we create art through intelligent learned ideas hides an experience of deeper natural form. A state of mind therefore exists that once allowed us to conceive of the world in a natural way, but artists have always created intelligently structured artificial images rather than the spontaneous intuitive results need to glimpse the instinctive insight. Art has always worked to suppress rather than reveal an original way of sensing sight, shape, sound, and movement, and it is this realisation that I believe was the motivation for challenging the established principles of art upheld by the founding pioneers of modernism.
XRW (Implicature)
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
50 A3 drawings black and coloured markers, including:
3 A3 collages on paper with newspaper cutouts and printed photos.
12 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers + 1 A3 with black ballpoint pen and markers.
13 A3 drawings on paper with black marker, and red, pale blue, gold, pink and orange markers +1 A3 wo-sided.
17 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover with red nail polish.
1 text drawing on sketchbook cover inside.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover back inside with black, orange and gold markers.
Some of the above is preparatory work for 4 large prints and 13 paintings.
22 A4 drawings with ballpoint pen.
I did/made the art between 2023-2024, from the perspective of the observer. I started writing the blog afterwards, from the summer of 2024.
I adopted the visual vocabulary of the graphic novel, which I partly studied and read a lot about looking at different graphic artists' work, when I was attending classes at the University of Malmo, Sweden, in 2012. I mixed this with stylistic elements of the architectural sketch, using heavily the black marker and stick figures. Much of this work is, amongst other, about children. I wanted to emphasise that, by intentionally applying stylistic elements from children's drawings, in a naive and loose architectural composition. Using this visual approach, I wanted to evoke a comically sharp twist to the otherwise dark subject matter.
"Pop and Politics" (Pop Og Politikk)
Where does the boundary run between art and popular culture? Pop art embraces the iconography of mass culture. Themes are taken from advertising comics, cinema and TV. The slick, impersonal style is a deliberate provocation.
In Norway, pop art is part of a broader left-wing protest movement. Everything from capitalism and imperialism to environmental and gender politics is subjected to critical scrutiny. The exclusive, unique artwork is replaced by mass-produced prints and posters, well suited to spreading a political message."
From the National Museum, Oslo, Norway, 2024.
For Nikos ('Rama', 'Mr X'), Filip ('Philip'), and Brandon - August, September, and October 2024. For "Tricky" and 'Eric' ("Paul V.") - January 2025. Who are not politicians, but are doing something political.
The text is written like a trip hop song. Some of the text is inspired by Saul Kripke's interpretation of Wittgenstein's example of mathematical calculation. The art is influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Saul Aaron Kripke was the inventor of the possible worlds philosophical hypothesis, which was seminal for philosophers working in the area of contemporary analytic metaphysics, including the theory of counterparts and the theory of names. He died in 2022.
See exposition in connection with "The Origins of The Game", "Debris", and "The Loot".