Lull and Visual Rest 2006
“The eye may wander over the painting’s surface in a way similar to that by which it wanders over nature. It should feel caressed, experience friction and rupture; it should glide and drift …one moment there being nothing it can see, the canvas appearing full, the next, presenting a host of visual occurrences.”
Bridget Riley
The modern eye moves quicker than ever and yet has become lazier than ever before, it looks but doesn’t see. There is good reason for this; the world is filling up with images at an alarming rate. There is an avalanche literally, of imagery cascading down on defenseless eyes. The media factory is pumping out a torrent of advertisement and amusement day and night through television, cell phones, electronic billboards, cinema and the Internet. The mental and physical reaction to this merciless onslaught is a creeping dullness, insularity and insensitivity to that which is meaningful and wholesome by young and old alike. This in some ways was predictable but the actual effect of this burgeoning visual and auditory pollution has resulted more and more in peoples unwillingness and loss of desire to suspend activity and allow time for meaningful reflection and contemplation. The constant subjection to noise, imagery and entertainment over time results in an inability to recognize wholesome input and even worse, a fear of silence and being alone. It’s a two-edged sword; the addiction to digital stimulation and noise and the hunger for but fear of peace and quiet. The flickering, flashing digital image gives no rest but demands constant attention promising the gift of a vibrant and bountiful future but often delivering an empty now. The slick-surfaced digital image doesn’t allow the eye to pause because time and the turnover of content demand the viewers focus remains fixed. There is no room for the static image here, no pause in the barrage of glamorous moving pictures from vested commercial market interests.
‘Lull’ can be defined as a short period of calm or an interlude where peace, stillness and meditation can be experienced by those who are receptive enough; an antidote as it were, for the digital poisoning. Paintings act as a catalyst for ‘Lull’ whereby the viewer can pause and refresh for a time. This takes patience on the part of the spectator and a willingness to stop and switch off from the noisy environment outside. Sitting in front of paintings and allowing the eye to not only look at but see the work of art takes patience and is a practice that over time will bring infinite pleasure and reward. Paintings slowly come alive and begin to breathe; colours harmonize and resonate, lines trace and delineate forms and compositions move all the constituent parts together like a symphony. The eye begins to notice the differences in surface texture, the subtle manipulations of material made by the artist in an attempt to realize aims in achieving the literal, ideal or material in his/her art. There is no comparison here between the man-made and the machine-made image; the former is inviting and empathic the latter closed and indifferent. Lull creates an alternative space, a gap where time is suspended in which viewers develop a heightened awareness of the relationship between paintings as image/object and themselves. It’s here in this beautiful space that a meaningful dialogue can take place in an unhurried way and where a form of creative rest can be found.
William Boot - Painter
“The eye may wander over the painting’s surface in a way similar to that by which it wanders over nature. It should feel caressed, experience friction and rupture; it should glide and drift …one moment there being nothing it can see, the canvas appearing full, the next, presenting a host of visual occurrences.”
Bridget Riley
The modern eye moves quicker than ever and yet has become lazier than ever before, it looks but doesn’t see. There is good reason for this; the world is filling up with images at an alarming rate. There is an avalanche literally, of imagery cascading down on defenseless eyes. The media factory is pumping out a torrent of advertisement and amusement day and night through television, cell phones, electronic billboards, cinema and the Internet. The mental and physical reaction to this merciless onslaught is a creeping dullness, insularity and insensitivity to that which is meaningful and wholesome by young and old alike. This in some ways was predictable but the actual effect of this burgeoning visual and auditory pollution has resulted more and more in peoples unwillingness and loss of desire to suspend activity and allow time for meaningful reflection and contemplation. The constant subjection to noise, imagery and entertainment over time results in an inability to recognize wholesome input and even worse, a fear of silence and being alone. It’s a two-edged sword; the addiction to digital stimulation and noise and the hunger for but fear of peace and quiet. The flickering, flashing digital image gives no rest but demands constant attention promising the gift of a vibrant and bountiful future but often delivering an empty now. The slick-surfaced digital image doesn’t allow the eye to pause because time and the turnover of content demand the viewers focus remains fixed. There is no room for the static image here, no pause in the barrage of glamorous moving pictures from vested commercial market interests.
‘Lull’ can be defined as a short period of calm or an interlude where peace, stillness and meditation can be experienced by those who are receptive enough; an antidote as it were, for the digital poisoning. Paintings act as a catalyst for ‘Lull’ whereby the viewer can pause and refresh for a time. This takes patience on the part of the spectator and a willingness to stop and switch off from the noisy environment outside. Sitting in front of paintings and allowing the eye to not only look at but see the work of art takes patience and is a practice that over time will bring infinite pleasure and reward. Paintings slowly come alive and begin to breathe; colours harmonize and resonate, lines trace and delineate forms and compositions move all the constituent parts together like a symphony. The eye begins to notice the differences in surface texture, the subtle manipulations of material made by the artist in an attempt to realize aims in achieving the literal, ideal or material in his/her art. There is no comparison here between the man-made and the machine-made image; the former is inviting and empathic the latter closed and indifferent. Lull creates an alternative space, a gap where time is suspended in which viewers develop a heightened awareness of the relationship between paintings as image/object and themselves. It’s here in this beautiful space that a meaningful dialogue can take place in an unhurried way and where a form of creative rest can be found.
William Boot - Painter
