Of Collective Consciousness

When we think about humanity, we are bound to encounter a sense of polarity. On one end, there is isolation and a sense of belonging on the other. Colombian artist Mario Arroyave is the observer of these vast stream-of-consciousness thoughts, and his artwork tells you why it all matters. From how we dissect our conscious thoughts, to how we choose to live our daily lives, these aspects add to the human collective we see in Arroyave’s work and around us.

Style

Arroyave’s pieces have an ongoing range. They are constantly evolving with every project he works on. He can show you so many humans or no humans at all. It matters how they are being shown to you, and this is where perspective comes into play. Where he wants you to see them from, through perspectives and angles, whether it’s people or abstractions. If they are elevated, or you see them head-on, or if you don’t see anything at all just ethereal colors, those perspectives say something important about how we view people, time, and space.

It is all about that interaction with perspective, where your attention goes, and what you decide it’s saying to you. If it’s far, it shows a collective sentiment where your understanding needs to be broad, and if it’s closer it’s a more intimate, focused approach to the subject matter.

Arroyave explains his thought process:

My creative process is closely linked to the person I am at the moment of creating…My first projects were characterized by the absence of humans in the spaces I portrayed, at that time it was very difficult for me to interact with others and this was reflected in my work.

People appeared as part of a personal process of being more social and this was mixed with some physics books that I was reading at that time where I was beginning to understand that linear time is human fiction and that in the end there are only interactions, so I decided to work on that approach and create timeless spaces where all events occur in the same singularity, and thus I began to weave the timeline series.

Deeper Meaning

There is an individual outlook on Arroyave’s approach that allows him to morph into his environment and what he wants to portray at any given moment. Even though his individualistic view is represented in the piece by showing, say, a tunnel-like vision in Dissections of the infinite, he also portrays collective consciousness, where he shows how everything can affect everything else through connection like in Timeline – Stand Paddle. These pieces fill the space and they have an element of a continuum. Life goes on, waves in the ocean keep moving, and people move on and go on, as well as time, regardless. 

He explains:

As beings we are in continuous mutation, personally, I like to think of myself as a snake that sheds its skin from time to time and this has allowed me to live multiple lives in this life, so art appears as a manifestation of each one of them, which in its uniqueness understand a different language.

Concluding Musings

Arroyave leads us into a world that exists as a particle in the grand universe. One that is constantly changing its reality in order to evolve and survive. Humans need connection with humans and other living beings, and many times that gets lost in modern times. But humans also need a connection to themselves as beings within the grand scheme of life and universal power. That’s a strong message that allows us to have a broader perspective and understanding of what it is to be part of collective existence while still holding on to our individuality.

He states:

The human is an organism, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all of us understand ourselves as such, everyone gravitates to their ego, answering for themselves, for their family, their friends, and their homeland…. but all within a relatively small ring. We do not perceive ourselves as the collective entity that we really are, there are a number of fictions that separate us from each other, preventing us from flowing like human tissue. As controversial as the very concept of family sounds, it is one of the pillars of this dissociation, from there the first barrier that divides us as a society is gestated. At some point I read in Plato's Timaeus a vision of society in Atlantis and how they articulated it in a system where the family nucleus as we know it did not exist, the children did not generate a bond with their parents, in fact, they did not even know them and so everyone they were a big family. This vision of society as a unit still exists in some indigenous tribes around the planet.

But if the recent years have something to show, it is that the need for collective connection is an emotion we all crave to an extent. Arroyave shows us what happens when we do certain things and how that affects us now and later. When we choose to isolate, connect, or ignore. The results are reflections of human needs at the time, and it shows us that reality is always changing and we are the ones who are making it happen whether we realize it or not. 

For more about this artist, please visit his website. The interview was translated from Spanish.

Today’s poem reflects Mario’s understanding of time and space:

Black Space

BY ISHION HUTCHINSON

For Erna Brodber

Be ye my fictions; But her story.
— Richard Crashaw

I can bring a halo

into the night cave, quiet

with music (do not ask the music),

to her shaded there

in the moon; her fine spectacles

steam their pond rings;

her animal eyes fix

on the lintel of the door

as the wax owl glances back at me. I am her little cotton

tree the breeze combs

white into a final note,

her diminuendo poco a poco ...    

Moon-afro, myself

outpaces me

in wonder of her.

She goes off and I seep

under the black sprout

of her house, to rise

a salmon bell on the hill

dissolving mild cloud fractals,

without grief or malice.

The Human Experience

Contemporary existence immerses humans in a fast-moving world and almost forces us to adapt. Unlike prior times, when life seemed to move at a slower pace. At least that’s the feeling that older photographs always give. When it comes to modern photography, capturing everyday life can also seem like a fleeting light of our individual existence, something that stems from the overwhelming amount of media we consume on a daily basis.

Richmond-based photographer, Riley Goodman, is making sure that his photographs don’t follow that fast-life cultural trend, and that we appreciate each moment instead. He has an affinity for capturing human existence with such rich stillness, and that technique shows us that getting comfortable in the now is actually a refreshing idea.

Goodman’s artistic journey began with his desire to pursue drawing and creative endeavors at an early age. Then, an admiration for photography and a shift in perspective led him to pursue a career in the field.

He explains:

“During my foundation freshman year at VCUarts I quickly discovered the storytelling abilities that photography could provide to my own practice. While I still enjoy other mediums like painting and drawing, I became fascinated with a way of communicating those mediums' evocations through the use of a camera. From there I turned a hobby into my main artistic practice. My first photobook, From Yonder Wooded Hill, was published this year, which was a great moment in feeling like I made the right decision in pursuing the medium.”

Style

Riley Goodman, Sundown at Poplar Vale.

Goodman’s photographs capture people, animals, places, and things that are in the right place at the right time. Even though the pieces have a sense of heightened thoughtfulness, each also portrays everything in its own natural light and habitat. Because the photographs are presented in this manner, they show us the authenticity of what we’re seeing.

That authenticity creates freedom for things to be accepted as they are and as they come. The softness of colors that highlight the lighter aspects of Goodman’s photographic technique is sometimes met with more masculine elements that bring out a ruggedness; thereby a connected approach within the photograph and toward the viewer. Take, for instance, Cruel Summer and Remembrances on a Parlor Wall, where the softness is hardened by other elements. With his work, he aims to broaden the spectator’s viewpoint of what the art experience can represent.

He explains:

“I would say my work is becoming sharper and has begun to push the boundaries of how photography can be presented in a gallery context. We are so used to images existing solely in a digital sphere at this point that I constantly challenge myself to present something other than just a photograph in a gallery context. How can we alter the presentation that makes that viewing experience go beyond something someone could just view on their phone. Recently I presented a work for a group show where I brought in a large tree stump with a photograph displayed behind this sculptural object along with another on the flat top of the stump itself. In this way, I am not only storytelling in my subject matter, but also in the story that develops through the viewer's experience with the work in a gallery context. Additionally, I find myself working on a larger scale in my image-making. More complex still lifes and portrait set-ups allow for greater narrative arcs.”

A Deeper Insight

Riley Goodman, The Angel of Hollywood.

The photographs Goodman takes show us the complexities that come with existence. There’s beauty, nature, experience, and vulnerability. But these aspects are only partially exposed in each piece, in a revealing manner. It causes us to wonder about what they’re telling us about the person, the time of day, or how the setting makes us feel. It is up to the viewer to uncover the mystery of things or to leave things be through acceptance. The works reveal a sense of truth in a naked sense, but still, leave some things to be uncovered. Such is the case in his photographs, Sundown at Poplar Vale and Forever At The Windows, where you want to know more about the place and time and what happened next. Many of the works touch on contemporary existence and how it is related to where we came from, another time, other ways of living, and history in general. They are gentle reminders of ourselves and our ancestors.

Goodman touches on his range of subject matter:

“Beyond being a photographer I have a background as a historian so much of my work begins as research and the exploration of our collective pasts. I am largely fascinated by folklore and the uncanny— so subject matter could range from a ghost story I read about and desire to visually communicate to a methodology of amateur photography used a hundred years ago that I work to employ contemporarily.”

Concluding Musings

Riley Goodman, Forever At The Windows.

Goodman has a clear understanding of what it means to portray the contemporary world and its connection to the past. There is a sense of remembrance of other times in his style. But what it shows is that photographs don’t have to be fleeting moments, but present ones, where everything exists just as it is without the need to fast-forward or change. Maybe if we look at our existence in the same way, we can appreciate where we are now in life in a bigger way.

He explains:

“There are so many great photographers working today. Lately, I've found myself drawn to the work of Paul Guilmoth, and Ian Bates, along with the photographic duo, Antone Dolezal & Laura Shipley. I always return to artists like Edward Hopper who've been providing inspiration since I was a child. Beyond specific artists, I've been very inspired lately by a wild combination of antique shooting galleries, Victorian mourning practices, Southern folk belief, the American Civil War, and East Coastal culture.”

His work provides an understanding of how places, people, and things have shaped and continue to shape who we are today, individually. There’s a history that is asking to be acknowledged and that allows for that stillness and curiosity we see in the work.

He shares more about his creative process:

“I find myself drawn to still lifes, draping fabric, and notions of life even when a human or animal is not present. I often illustrate the precursor or aftermath of an event but never the event itself, and try to take the common or mundane and turn the dial slightly to create a subtle unease that makes the viewer do a double take.”

It is fascinating to see glimpses of the connected influence of things through a photograph of flowers or the way the sunlight illuminates the side of a silhouette. It is through those characteristics that we learn so much about what is being revealed and how much we’re willing to learn about the living experience, by opening our minds to it and including ourselves in it during our own personal explorations. The photos make you appreciate life and daily moments even more.

For more on this artist’s work, please visit his website.

Riley Goodman, Fair Weather Soon

Riley Goodman, The Old Dominion

Riley Goodman, Remembrances on a Parlor Wall

Riley Goodman, Cruel Summer

Today’s poem goes hand-in-hand with Riley’s understanding of the human experience and its relation to history:

America

BY WALT WHITMAN

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,

All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,

Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,

Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,

A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,

Chair’d in the adamant of Time.

Where the Wild Things Thrive

Artistic vision, nurtured authentically from inception can create a limitless vortex of ideas for artists. For Chilean artist Carolina Muñoz, this vision is captured by a world where anything is possible. A world where humanoid characters are mere components of a bigger purpose. Muñoz’s artwork shows us the potential of what can happen when we let our conscious thoughts collide with the dream-like reality created by our subconscious. You never know what you may find.

Technique

There’s a purpose in the way Muñoz’s works are put together and they all hold an immense amount of detail. In Serie Negros, we see a character that is up to something but within the painting, there’s more happening in his surroundings as he is nonchalant about it. Time appears to have frozen in the painting, yet there is a sense of urgency coming from the motion-like gestures you see. There are even inanimate objects with faces, as you’ll find in Cuarto de Censura (2019), and they are part of it too. Everything going on in the work itself serves like particles of this universe and she is the creator inviting you to see it all, leaving no stone unturned. She is exposing a moment that makes the viewer feel like they just walked into a compromising situation they can’t unsee, much like a dream, when you are present but everything else is already in motion, it’s happening now.

For Muñoz, creating is a transcendental experience. One that can overwhelm her with thoughts into the medium to create by dissecting each piece within the idea, one by one:

“One of the important aspects of the [creative] process is when I enter the state of thought, the principles of making the work or the series. I live around it, I can't stop thinking, it's quite exhausting and overwhelming. It is first like a mental experimentation that lasts days or weeks that later lands on paper; a sketch. There are times that it arises in one night. But it is a process where you fill in the information and then you have to sort and select. When you have the sketch, the rest begins to flow smoothly… I think that drawing is a good ally in the process, it helps to organize the mind. Sometimes, a few times, I also write, before making a piece, I read a lot of things or watch artists' documentaries. Seeing art motivates me a lot, it makes me want to work in the studio.”

I very much enjoy the juxtaposition of the soft pastel colors in a harsh setting within Muñoz’s work. There’s a duality to her use of color and what she’s drawing or painting. The caricature-like drawings give the pieces a sense of child-like curiosity and mannerism that makes you look, only to find that what is being depicted is a very mature portrayal of the subconscious. I appreciate that Muñoz gives herself permission to cover the entire canvas to explore the complexity of drawing a whole scene encapsulated by a chaotic perspective through wiggled lines, realistic facial features, shock-like moments, and blurred-out visuals.

Muñoz explains how abstraction has recently played a part in her creations:

“My art changes and evolves due to the need to do work, one seeks to reach something that is not necessarily tangible, but rather the feeling that the work done has a projection or takes me where I want to go... For some time I have been looking at a lot of abstract art, the use of technique, color, and stain. It is difficult for me to conceive a work without thinking about the figuration, without thinking about the space and characters that make up a scene. In the last works, I worked on the abstraction contained in the form, within faces and bodies. I found it interesting that as the result of this, the characters were in a state of constant change, without one being able to determine or distinguish their identity and gender. The ambiguity in my work has to do with deformation, I think it is my way of abstracting.”

It is a beautiful way to use an abstraction that challenges the form itself to be contained within space. There is a sense of control that comes from that, like the need to tame something wild. By doing so Muñoz is challenging herself while applying a new concept that fits within her creative world, and that is what evolution in art is all about. 

Vision

The characters you see in Muñoz’s paintings are an enigma and they are bound to make you take a closer look. They remind me of characters you may see in fables, much more surreal, contemporary fables that is. But they look like characters you don’t forget because they tell you stories that can be uneasy and uncomfortable to hear at times, causing you to question reality itself, the light and shadow sides of all we see, including aspects of our own minds and narratives. 

Muñoz shares her vision on the role these characters play as essential components of her work:

“The characters generally perform different functions, in a kind of submission. They are constantly performing. Many times they are inside exhibition spaces helping to convey an idea, sometimes confusing and questioning the viewer. I think that the characters can reveal deep human behaviors and the relationship we have with the world. I am interested in creating and sustaining a world of my own, with a certain type of character, living, existing in these settings that surround the formality of the art world. It is also as if they were trapped in the inertia of this aesthetic structure of art. Characters with crooked noses, creeping deformations do not rest.”

We all have secrets and parts of ourselves that we don’t like to show to the entire world, but deep inside our subconscious, we know they exist and are very much a part of who we are today or were in the past. Whichever the case, sometimes we suppress those aspects of ourselves so much until we can no longer contain them. That exact feeling of exposure and vulnerability is what reminds me of some of Muñoz’s paintings. In Mujeres del Espacio (2020) and Dia de Ofrenda (2019), we see how the characters are basking in their reality that is very much present and they are living in it, like an explosion of subconscious thoughts that are now in the open to be faced and dealt with whether you like it or not. 

Extra Notes

Muñoz is an artist whose vision evokes complex emotions within. The works allow for a constant need to observe and question not just through our personal realities but also of humanity overall. 

When I asked the artist about what she loves most about being creative, she responded:

“The freedom to do what you want, to work from your imagination. See reality from the most sensitive corners. Convey imperceptible aspects, answer questions with answers that at the same time generate questions, thoughts, and inferences. I like to give importance to things that in reality very few give their place. Like the incredible thing about the mechanism of dreams. Or question theories that we cannot understand and give space to create one of our own.” 

The artworks have an invisible sense of purpose, in which the characters are responding or acting to take on something bigger than them. It is that thought that confirms there are aspects we ought to pay attention to as humans since we have access to both conscious and subconscious realities. That nudge or intuition can provide knowledge about ourselves or the world, and this gives us awareness and understanding like a piece within a puzzle. 

Interview translated from Spanish. For more about the artist’s work, please visit her website.

Today’s poem reflects Carolina’s understanding of the real world and one of dreams:

Tulips

BY SYLVIA PLATH

The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.

Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in

I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly

As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.

I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.

I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses

And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to surgeons.

They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff

Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.

Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.

The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble,

They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,

Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,

So it is impossible to tell how many there are.

My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water

Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.

They bring me numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep.

Now I have lost myself I am sick of baggage ——

My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,

My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;

Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.

I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat

Stubbornly hanging on to my name and address.

They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.

Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley

I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books

Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.

I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.

I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted

To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.

How free it is, you have no idea how free ——

The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,

And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.

It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them

Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.

The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.

Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe

Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.

Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.

They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,

Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their colour,

A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.

Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.

The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me

Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,

And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow

Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,

And I have no face, I have wanted to efface myself.

The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.

Before they came the air was calm enough,

Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.

Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.

Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river

Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.

They concentrate my attention, that was happy

Playing and resting without committing itself.

The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.

The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;

They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,

And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes

Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.

The water I taste is warm and salty, like the sea,

And comes from a country far away as health.

Sylvia Plath, “Tulips” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1960, 1965, 1971, 1981 by the Estate of Sylvia Plath. Editorial matter copyright © 1981 by Ted Hughes. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source: Collected Poems (HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1992)