CreatorAlexander RiskeTitleMind Chase 1, 3, 5, and 7Date2008MediumPen and ink on acid free Arches PaperArtist StatementA set of drawings composed from a bank of 108 geometric forms assembled in a spatial array. The mind chases itself through creating forms by which it can perceive itself. Below is some writing of mine from 2008, which tries to explain the search for the true self through observing the mind:
THE NATURE OF TWO - Understanding Subject - Object.
Sometimes we sleep very deeply and, on occasions, some of us experience a state upon waking where, just for a moment, we forget where we are, who we are and what we do. This is us emerging from the deep unconscious but bringing that nameless, formless state with us. We normally leave it far behind and assemble our sense of self and identity well before we awake. In this case though we have retained it and we experience what it is like to be an infant again without an identity and a mind filled with labels. We are just there.
Think back to infancy, back before you could think. We are going to start talking about the mind. The mind is the starting point. The mind is the subject. The mind starts out empty. It sees but doesn't know what it sees. It doesn't know it is a mind either because it has nothing defined in it to reflect that knowledge back to itself. The mind needs reflection to see itself and the objects outside itself. The objects are indefinable without the mind knowing that it is looking with a mind. It needs to know it is looking. It is therefore first looking for the form of its mind that can tell it, it is looking, looking for something. The mind needs something (an object) to reflect itself back to itself. Without an object it can't see anything there and it can't be aware of itself seeing anything there either. So the object reflects mind back to itself so that it can have a form to perceive with. The object permits mind to have a form. And the mind allows the object to reflect consciousness. As such the object constitutes also a form of mind. The object is part of the subject - object relationship and expresses a form of awareness.
The mind becoming aware of its spatial relationship with an object in a perceptual and existential sense seems to then rapidly run through all possible forms looking for the ultimate reflection of mind. At a certain point, the thinking mind which believes itself to be separate from the actual mind composed of three elements (subject/object/silent witness), it gives up and burns itself out, leaving a different understanding which is hard to describe but can only be experienced. These drawings are part of that journey.Accession Number155.2018Access AdviceFor research purposes only. No reproduction without permission of Yarrila Arts and Museum.
More Information
Description
Set of 4 abstract drawings (from a total set of 8), pen and ink on acid free Arches Paper.
