---
title: "115 - Psi-Psi: The Hidden Territory, Siler 2/14-3/14 1987"
date: 2017-08-21T14:02:00-04:00
author: Graham Murray
canonical_url: "https://feldmangallery.com/exhibition/115-psi-psi-the-hidden-territory-siler-2-14-3-14-1987"
section: Exhibition
---
[](/)
View Artists
Search
Artists
[Exhibitions](/feature_exhibitions) [Past Exhibitions](/past_exhibitions/) [Artists](/artist_overview) [News & Press](/news_overview) [Inventory](https://www.artsy.net/ronald-feldman-gallery/artists) [Publications](/feature_publications) [Gallery Info](/about) [Contact](/contact)
[](https://www.facebook.com/RonaldFeldmanGallery/) [](https://www.instagram.com/feldmangallery/) [](https://twitter.com/feldmangallery?lang=en)
[Artsy](https://www.artsy.net/ronald-feldman-gallery) [Artnet](http://www.artnet.com/galleries/ronald-feldman-fine-arts/)
Artists
[ View With Images
](/artist_overview)
Jump to: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
[ Arakawa
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/arakawa-) [ Conrad Atkinson
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/conrad-atkinson) [ Eleanor Antin
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/eleanor-antin) [ Ida Applebroog
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/ida-applebroog-) [ Jim Anderson
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/jim-anderson-)
B
[ Alexander Brodsky
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/alexander-brodsky) [ Brandon Ballengée
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/brandon-balleng%C3%A9e) [ Brodsky & Utkin
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/brodsky-utkin) [ Chris Burden
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/chris-burden-) [ Joseph Beuys
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/joseph-beuys)
C
[ Cassils
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/cassils) [ Keith Cottingham
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/keith-cottingham) [ Nancy Chunn
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/nancy-chun)
D
[ Eric Dyer
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/eric-dyer) [ Milena Dopitová
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/milena-dopitova)
F
[ Carl Fudge
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/carl-fudge) [ Terry Fox
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/terry-fox)
G
[ Leon Golub
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/leon-golub-) [ Rico Gatson
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/rico-gatson) [ Yishay Garbasz
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/yishay-garbasz)
H
[ Cameron Hayes
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/cameron-hayes) [ Christine Hill
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/christine-hill) [ Helen Mayer & Newton Harrison
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/helen-mayer-harrison-newton-harrison) [ Kelly Heaton
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/kelly-heaton) [ Margaret Harrison
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/margaret-harrison) [ Shih Chieh Huang
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/shih-chieh-huang)
J
[ Simone Jones
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/simone-jones)
K
[ Brian Knep
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/brian-knep) [ Komar & Melamid
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/komar-melamid) [ Peggy Jarrell Kaplan
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/peggy-jarrell-kaplan) [ Vitaly Komar
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/vitaly-komar)
L
[ Kim Levin
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/kim-levin-)
M
[ McCarren/Fine
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/mccarren-fine)
O
[ Pepón Osorio
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/pep%C3%B3n-osorio) [ The Oakes Twins
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/the-oakes-twins)
P
[ Bruce Pearson
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/bruce-pearson) [ Panamarenko
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/panamarenko)
R
[ Fredric Riskin
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/fredric-riskin-1) [ Richard Ross
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/richard-ross)
S
[ Diemut Strebe
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/diemut-strebe) [ Edwin Schlossberg
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/edwin-schlossberg) [ Federico Solmi
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/federico-solmi-) [ Jason Salavon
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/jason-salavon) [ Todd Siler
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/todd-siler)
U
[ Mierle Laderman Ukeles
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/mierle-laderman-ukeles)
V
[ Sam Van Aken
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/sam-van-aken)
W
[ Allan Wexler
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/allan-wexler) [ Andy Warhol
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/andy-warhol) [ Clemens Weiss
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/clemens-weiss) [ Hannah Wilke
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/hannah-wilke)
Y
[ Gil Yefman
](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/gil-yefman)
[  ](/)
Psi-Psi: The Hidden Territory
[Todd Siler](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/todd-siler) Feb 13 – Mar 13, 1987
Todd Siler
Visual Notes / From the Book of Mental Imagery, 1986
Description
In this exhibition, Todd Siler continues to explore the nature of human thought. As a means of undertsanding the mystery of thought processes, Siler relates the workings of the brain to the workings of the ideas, concepts, objects the brain creates. His drawings, paintings, collages and constructions combine artistic and scientific methods of inquiry.
STATES OF MIND
The large south gallery contains two installations.
BREAKING THE MIND BARRIER: THE SYMMETRIES OF NATURE. This artwork delves into the unsuspected relationship between the workings of neural systems and advanced weapon systems. The installation consists of an 8' high, free-standing column of light which visually divides two 6' x 17' paintings that converge in a corner of the gallery. Once every three minutes, the crescendo of a subtly pulsating sound triggers a flash of white light which fuses the paintings, simulating an instant of creation and destruction. The overall tone is poetic, philosophical and questioning.
STATES OF MIND reconstructs a moment of the artist's thoughts – relating the workings of the brain to the workings of the things the brain creates. The organization of the fourteen constituent paintings reflects the patterns of Siler's own electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings which run the length of the artwork (12' x 80'). Siler refers to these paintings as mental representations of theimages and objects of the mind. Their surfaces and colors symbolize various cellular and chemical properties of the brain. Audio recordings add another dimension to this work.
FORMS OF THOUGHT
The north gallery contains a group of artworks entitles FORMS OF THOUGHT.
IN THE EYE OF THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM, a 25' elliptical-shaped canvas, represents the visible and invisible light of the human mind. Siler relates the processes of intuition to all the wavelengths outside the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The processes of reason by contrast, he associates with the visible wavelengths which are mixed in "the pupil of the eye". Various colored lights are projected in the center of the canvas, symbolizing the different levels or wavelengths of reasoning in forceful concentration. The calm, meditative quality of this work evokes the sensation of self-consciousness, as one simultaneously experiences and analyzes one?s own thought processes.
MIND SET, on the opposite side of the room, is a visually kinetic montage of shaped canvases which explores the neuropsychology of two intersecting planes of thought.
The artist has prepared a five minute videotape highlighting the conceptual and formal aspects of MINDSET, as well as discussing the mental imagery presented in this exhibition.
Siler received his PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies in Psychology and Art from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986. He was the first visual artist to receive a doctorate from this Institute. Siler has recently returned from studying in India on a Fulbright Scholarship. This will be Siler'ss third one-person exhibition at the gallery.
[  View Press Release ](https://feldmangallery.com/assets/pdfs/artistCV/exhsil87_press.pdf)
[  View Artist ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/todd-siler)
Todd Siler
Connecting Forms, 1985 - 1986
View Gallery
 ![Siler Connecting Forms 1985 1986 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Todd Siler
Connecting Forms, 1985 - 1986
![Siler Study For States Of Mind 1986 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Todd Siler
Study for States of Mind, 1986
![Siler Two Planes Of Thought Intersecting 1986 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Todd Siler
Two Planes of Thought Intersecting, 1986
![Siler Visual Notes From The Book Of Mental Imagery 1986 A 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Todd Siler
Visual Notes / From the Book of Mental Imagery, 1986
![Siler Visual Notes From The Book Of Mental Imagery 1986 B 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Todd Siler
Visual Notes / From the Book of Mental Imagery, 1986
Psi Phi, 1987
View Gallery
 ![Siler In The Eye Of The Electromagnetic Spectrum 1985 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler Breaking The Mind Barrier 1986 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler States Of Mind 1985 1986 Install Shot 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler States Of Mind 1985 1986 Detail 4 Of 13 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler States Of Mind 1985 1986 Detail 6 Of 13 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
 ![Siler In The Eye Of The Electromagnetic Spectrum 1985 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler Breaking The Mind Barrier 1986 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler States Of Mind 1985 1986 Install Shot 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler States Of Mind 1985 1986 Detail 4 Of 13 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
![Siler States Of Mind 1985 1986 Detail 6 Of 13 1]()
1 2 3 4 5
Psi Phi, 1987
installation view
Ronald Feldman Gallery has been at the frontier of contemporary art since 1971. The gallery is located in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City and exhibits performance, photography, new media, film, painting, drawing and sculpture.
Sign up to receive email updates
[Exhibitions](/feature_exhibitions) [Artists](/artist_overview) [Press & News](/news_overview)
[Contact](/contact) [About](/about) [Privacy Policy](https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/41599251) [Cookie Policy](https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/41599251/cookie-policy) [ADA Compliance Statement](https://dashboard.accessibe.com/statement?license=619a6a548dbc2f0444ae1886)
31 Mercer Street
New York, NY 10013
Office Hours:
Monday - Friday:
10:00am - 6:00pm
Exhibition Viewing Hours:
Tuesday - Thursday, Saturday
1:00pm - 5:00pm
phone [212-226-3232](tel:212-226-3232)
[ ](https://www.facebook.com/RonaldFeldmanGallery/) [ ](https://www.instagram.com/feldmangallery/) [ ](https://twitter.com/feldmangallery?lang=en)
 Copyright © 2026 Ronald Feldman Gallery