Lunar See (solo exhibition)

The originality of the artworks in the Lunar See exhibition lies in their manner of active engagement of viewers' perceiving of them. The creation of the works was informed by neuroscientific theories as to why humans are prone to the experience of visual ambiguity (which is due to the structure and operation of the brain's visual system). However, the works do not attempt to directly illustrate examples of visual ambiguity as such, rather the approach to their production was simply informed by the fact that the visual system is prone to artifactual peculiarities of its own operation and that these can have bearing upon what is experienced of visual perception. The works engaged viewers' perceptual experience in two ways; firstly at the level of the representation content of the imagery the works bear, and secondly at the level of the technical rendering of that content. The imagery was derived from original photographs. Screen-printing (as well as the digital manipulation, by means of which the imagery has been prepared for printing) was used to overlay imagery from two or more photographs. The end results are such that there is an interpenetration and mutual interference of representational content from these different image sources, while a vestige of photographic facticity was tenuously retained. As a consequence, the works bore imagery that is unclear or irresolute, but in a positive sense. Not quite being certain of what one is seeing brings the act of experience of the works, which includes their perception, to the fore. Additionally, a fairly coarse dithering has been used to make the photo-positives from which the multiple screen-printing stencils were made. The screening or layering of multiple dithered screens creates a degree of visual noise that further interferes with the clear perception of the works, again in a positive way, to increase even more the level of their operation upon viewers' perceptual experience of them.