Stark Contrasts Statement
"For nearly 70 years, most Western nations have enjoyed the benefits of
relative social and political stability, secure borders and affluence.
Generations have grown accustomed to the consistency of these
circumstances, which has allowed us to believe that this is the norm for
countries like ours and that it is natural for these conditions to
continue indefinitely. Intellectually of course, thoughtful adults know
this is not the case. The intransigent economic crisis in Europe and the
United States, the global warming debate, the ongoing tensions in the
Middle East, the boatloads of desperate refugees arriving on the shores of
our countries – these things remind us of the fragility of our good
fortune. But we look around us and life seems to go on much as it always
has. So we replace our blinders and settle back into comforting patterns
of thought and continue as if we are immune to the currents that are
re-shaping our world.
I used only sepia tones to make these paintings in order to emphasize the
stark contrasts that are revealed when we distinguish between what is
actually happening and our assorted personal and collective constructed
realities. The expression “consensus reality” is beginning to be bandied
about by media types and other social commentators to describe the
collective version of this phenomenon. Often, buying into a particular
consensus reality is a prerequisite for acceptance into a social or
political group with which one wishes to be identified. We reflexively
deny validity to the other group’s perspective, while we self-censure to
avoid confronting weaknesses in our own. To critique the truth claims of
our own peer group is seditious and likely to invite banishment. On an
individual level, we may dissociate from qualities that we deny are ours,
then project this shadow material onto others and condemn them. Or we may
block out new revelations and insights by stubbornly and habitually
clinging to unproductive attachments and beliefs. We do these things
grounded in certainty that our justifications are unimpeachable; that all
that is delivered to the tabula rasa of our awareness is unmediated,
objective truth; that the solution to my conflict with you is for you to
privilege my perspective over your own; and that “group-think” is a
virtue.
Ultimately, this is not a message of doom and gloom or pessimism. Rather,
it is a dialogue about courage, engagement and awareness. Awareness not
only of what is happening in the world outside of ourselves, but awareness
of how the mechanisms and structures within us shape how we interpret and
relate to the world and to each other." |