“Perception constitutes our awareness of what it is to be human, indeed what it is to be alive.”
Bridget Riley
This week I visited the Hayward Gallery to see the Bridget Riley exhibition. Her huge abstract paintings of stripes and colours must be experienced live, and wow are they alive. They have a truly psychedelic effect, giving the viewer the experience of expanded and altered consciousness.
I was there to experience all of that, but I was also there most of all to see for myself one painting, Riley’s copy of Seurat’s “The Bridge at Courbevoie”, which she regarded as her greatest tutorial, using what Seurat coined as pointillism, painting with coloured dots of oil paint, to both create an image and also receive and alter the perception of the viewer.
I was alone in that room and able to stand very close to the painting and take time to see the dots, then stand back at varying differences, each of which altered my perception.
So, I titled today’s post “The Art of Perception”. The heart of my work is around people and actively and deeply listening to and observing them. Perception is reality and reality is perception and I am always looking for new learnings and ways to listen, to see, to perceive.
I encourage you to seek out new ways that are outside your normal spheres, your comfort zone. It could be art, music, movement, spiritual practice. Anything and everything we learn has the ability, should we allow it to, to shift our perception. I wish you curiosity, growth, and shifting perceptions.