If nothing else,
the trip to UQ’s beautiful Art Museum to see Linde Ivimey’s If Pain Persists Sculpture exhibit taught
me a valuable life lesson; not to judge things based on the first glance. I
admittedly had not done any previous research into what the exhibit was that we
were going to be engaging with, so to my shock I found her artworks initially
to be incredibly confronting and at times a little overwhelming. The concepts
in my mind did not seem to add up. How could you have something so disgusting
as bones and human hair representing yourself as a child? But as our wonderful
guide for the day explained the stories behind the sculptures, the pieces and
bits of information in my head began to fit together. What was initially a very
confronting exhibit full of odd bits and pieces ended up being a very well
thought through exhibition that illustrated great craftsmanship and detailing.
Above I mentioned
that I learnt very specifically from this instance at the exhibit that
perception is so incredibly important in terms of how different people view one
particular piece of artwork. With a class full of people witnessing the same
exhibit, everyone’s worldview influenced how they were to perceive the artwork
in front of them. Some people were really into it, whilst others were rather
cautious and viewed from a distance.
What I found to
be most curious of all was when we initially looked at the large sculpture of
twelve small figures lined up, without faces, wearing rags for clothing and
linking themselves together. Before looking at the title I did an initial
brainstorm as to what I thought the piece of art was about. In this initial
brainstorm I came up with ideas such as the blind following the blind,
prisoners, poor strugglers, slaves, all of which were rather negative ideas.
When it was revealed that the sculpture was depicting the Twelve Apostles I was
initially shocked and for some reason felt a little disrespected. To me, those
prior thoughts of what I had in mind for the sculpture prior to knowing the
title were not traits that I would ever associate with Jesus’ most loyal
followers. In fact, the term blind following the blind, or even, blind leading
the blind made me wonder what Linde’s religious background was. Did she dislike
Christianity? Did she think that the Apostles were clueless? I found myself in
a state of disequilibrium not knowing or understanding where she was going with
the idea.
Since seeing the
exhibit I have read her online resource that states that she “had an
opportunity to explore spirituality and a grouping whose blind faith fascinated
her”. I believe it strongly comes down to the individual world view that a
person comes with when they look at a piece of art. For an initial brainstorm
can tell you one thing, but the moment a title or label is given to it, the
perspective instantly shifts and as long term memory allows points of relevance
to be connected to the new artwork, you can no longer see it in the exact same way
that you did before.
To me it is absolutely
astonishing at how some pieces of information can drastically change the way a
person perceives and interprets something. The moment I was told the name of
the piece my perspective instantly flipped and drastically changes as I brought
together a heap of prior knowledge in regards to that topic and began to work
out the little nuances that the artist had created within the artwork. That for
me was very confronting. I have never before experiences such a drastic and
rapid change in how I have perceived something before. Yet, even in reflection
I still understand how I thought the way I did when I initially saw the piece,
and again, what I see now.
Image Reference: Courtesy of The University of Queensland's Art Museum Online Resources
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