Perch Project 2016: Visceral Viewing
13 September, 2016 - 16 October, 2016
Master Bedroom
Layla Rudneva-McKay, Blue (2011)
It is all too common with art for viewers to have a reaction to a particular work, but not know what has provoked it. It is often much easier to recognise the type of reaction – whether psychological, emotional, or even physical – than to why it took place. T.S. Eliot said “genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood”.
Visceral Viewing is based around this idea; made up of artworks that we are drawn to intuitively, without necessarily understanding why.
During the Romantic era, artist sought the Sublime in landscape: that which inspired wonder and awe in them, and reinforced the power of nature. For this exhibition, we looked for works that provoked similar feelings in us; feelings that perhaps we weren’t used to.
Consequently, this lead us to wonder why we would have such a reaction—we knew the effect that the art had on us was significant, but we could not define or explain it.
The contemporary philosopher, Alain de Botton, summarises our experience in Art as Therapy: “…from time to time, we encounter works of art that seem to latch on to something we have felt but never recognised clearly before.” Botton goes on to argue that art is crucial for our self-understanding and helps define our character, and that our taste in art, and our reaction to certain works, reflects on what is missing in our lives, whether it be emotionally or psychologically.
We are drawn to art works that exhibit certain characteristics that we may have a lack of in ourselves. Art can provide us with these qualities, and make us whole again. Visceral is at the core of this idea, as it speaks to our soul, and to our character, rather than to our mind (in an intellectual sense).
The works in the exhibition were chosen on a purely intuitive basis, as opposed to an analytical one. Throughout the process of choosing the works for the exhibition we thought and said to one another, “I really like it, but I’m not quite sure what it is” or “It stirred something in me that I can’t quite explain.” These works were a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar, incomprehensible and intriguing, unexplainable and personal. We believe they show boldness and audacity, and hope they provoke a type of reaction in the viewer in the same way they did in us.
-Sophie Clark, Bri Leonard-Fuller, and Ariella Rosenbaum-Raynish, August 2016
Perch Project 2016, New Curators on Display
Art History Students from participating Secondary Schools joined in a special series of tours at the Pah Homestead and Rannoch earlier this year. Using the artworks they saw as inspiration, students selected works from the Collection and conceived curatorial concepts to devise an exhibition for the Pah Homestead.
Two proposals were selected to be shown at the Arts Centre. These were by students from Carmel College and Diocesan School.