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
View Artist
