Documentation for Master of Fine Art

My objective is to research and comprehend the intricacies of and connections between various mythologies of existence, to investigate beyond the immediate significance of signs and beyond sub-cultural interpretations, and so move into the detailed fabric of meaning that our culture imposes. I am interested in exploring the rhythms of life, death and decay in the physical world and the psychic world so that my perceptions have greater clarity. Coupled with fantasy and imagination, I want to make images that are able to elucidate not only my own personal truths, but illustrate a type of experience that is universal. This procedure leads me to greater awareness, but at the same time to the complexities of perception. This means recognising failures in my communication which gives me impetus to learn and search for more effective expressions of the insights which come through experience. I would like to develop my awareness on moral and political changes in relation to the individuals role in society through the ages including contemporary culture. I would like to research the myths and rituals of different cultures and their function in expressing that culture's needs and experience. This would allow me the opportunity to explore the life motivating and directing forces of these myths and their relationship to contemporary society. I believe this would be highly relevant to my work. I want to explore the common denominators of myths and inherited mythical archetypes and their influence on modem consciousness. I aim to create a dialogue utilizing symbolic forms created by the unconscious mind and recognized by the conscious, in continuous interaction with contemporary life. Utilizing practical experimentation I aim to explore the laws of Gestalt psychology. By acquiring a greater understanding of these laws (e.g. symmetry, proximity and similarity etc.), I can then choose to group them in a harmonious way, or to create a feeling of tension and dissonance, to camouflage or to force the viewer to a deeper consideration of the work. By understanding the psychological, symbolic and emotional affects of formal elements, such as colour, shape, darkness and light, I aim to create layers of meaning that direct the viewer's mind to something beyond the work of art, to a meaning that has universal significance. I hope to show the viewer that the visible expressive elements of the images I produce represent a symbolic rather than a literal meaning. As these two areas of study interact and reinforce each other, I hope to evolve new visual techniques to assist people toward an understanding and appreciation of our inward, as well as the world's outward order of facts in relation to the conditions of contemporary life.