11 June - 16 July May 2010
iArt Gallery, 71 Loop Street
The mechanics of visual perception are simple enough to understand: light enters the eye from objects surrounding us; an image of the objects is formed on the retina. This knowledge has been available to us since the time of the ancient Greeks. However, no matter how advanced our knowledge of the scientific processes of the eye becomes, what has fascinated humankind about visual perception more than the mechanics of it, are the mysteries.
Until Ibn al-Haytham (a Persian scientist and the “father of optics”) set the record straight in 1021 it was believed that ocular perception resulted from the movement of rays that emanated from the eye falling on surrounding objects and thus allowing us to see them. Although the Persian proved that vision worked the other way around, via stimuli entering from outside rather than sight radiating from within, vision occurs in the brain, rather than the eyes. Most often, personal experience has an effect on what people see and how they see; vision and perception are subjective.
The Mechanics and Mysteries of Perception presents an array of visual and sensory phenomena. The work of art is a multi-faceted entity, containing within itself the history of the artist, the history of the viewer and the history of its own fabrication. The works included on the exhibition call attention, each in their own way, to the mysteries of visual perception: in the physical, cultural, and psychological factors that shape perception, the boundaries of the human field of vision, and the influence of language, memory, and the subconscious.
FEATURING WORK BY:
Zwelethu Mthethwa, Matthew Hindley, Sandra Hanekom, Marlise Keith, Beth Armstrong, Colbert Mashile, Jan van der Merwe, Jan du Toit, Clare Menck, Alex Emsley, Audrey Anderson, Colijn Strydom, Paula Louw, Eric Duplan, Wilma Cruise and Barbara Wildenboer.