131 Garran Rd, Acton, Australian National University
My trans-disciplinary practice includes theories of the mind, neuroscience, and experimenting spatially with ideas through the process of clay hand-building. Physically and metaphorically, I believe that the poetic gap originates in that dynamic space for change - the synaptic gap.
Being and knowing can be apprehended at a macro level (psychological sciences and philosophy), and at the micro level (individual introspection). I become mindful of things that are sensuously present in me, when I catch myself physically reacting to them. Tactile and visceral, these sculptures capture edifying and emergent ex
The plasticity of clay can mirror a receptive mind. I want to make tangible how we ‘think’ abstractly through spatial relations, including pre-conscious processing at somato-sensory levels. Implicitly, Neural Imaginings bears the trace of a human presence in clay, as palpable evidence of one’s own self-production. Materials of self-inscription –the formation of clay surfaces bearing the trace of the hand, toned in ink and graphite – animate it’s surfaces. This installation expresses how the mind thinking about the mind, is literally being held in the grip of thought.
Labyrinth-like and rhizomal, Neural Imaginings extends towards ideas beyond cartesian brain-body or body-mind constructs, and how we co-create virtual realities, enacted through the body. I reflect on the essential foundation to how we build any sense of knowing something, exploring how meanings may arise out of personal experience.
Neural Imaginings is a sculptural installation that inhabits a trans-disciplinary context. ANU’s John Curtin Medical Centre bears the hallmarks of the human sciences, by the symbols embedded in its architecture. Without cultural symbols, Neural Imaginings offers an experience in which to explore how we may think about thinking itself.
