This morning began characterized by a couple of my minor human failings: missing garbage day (still feeling that —ah, fuck— wake-up to the banging metal sound of the truck passing my empty curbside) and, morning coffee with just the dregs of milk shaken from the bottom of the container because I forgot to get more yesterday. These foibles begin to dissipate amidst an internal warming that is prompted by mnemonic objects that surround me—simple objects that remind me of promise, of beauty, of my own potential: the slant of early sun on those hard, green lemons that haven’t yet ripened on the tree leaning over my back fence; yesterday’s wet beach clothes still hanging half-assed on the line where I’d quickly tossed them; a neglected yoga mat draped over the chair reminding me that I should get to that today before rushing out to the next thing.
[Suggested listening below for reading through the rest of the text, at less than half volume]:
Incidental mnemonics like these are elements that come to occupy a space I will describe as midi-consciousness, or, what I see as the space that oscillates between the subconscious and the vaporous formation of new thoughts, sensations and feelings into awareness. Midi-consciousness is, then, a fibrous enmeshment between internal and external dimensions—perhaps, stitching new neuronal dendritic branchings into micro-electrifying synapse formations. Imagine these formations not happening all at once in a bright snap of wakefulness but rather in a blurring together of the edges of images, as if a bleeding watercolour composition. Midi-consciousness communicates to us in the ambiguous language of symbols, synchronicities (including frequency bias), pattern recognition (Gestalt), wonder/ awe and, our own assignation of meaning of memories—in varying emergent contexts over time. Memory/meaning is malleable and reinterpretable in the realm of the midi-consciousness; it is this fact that allows artists to tap into triggers to generate art that is provocative and culturally flexible.
Mnemonics are tools that I am exploring in a recent work, entitled, Happiness is a Warm Gun. I specifically want to use mnemonic assemblages to construct a visual allegory. An allegory is—to give a basic definition—a work (of literature or visual art) where that which is being depicted or described signals a thematic undercurrent that may not be immediately apparent. Two weeks ago, I finally managed to have this artwork documented in the way I envisioned, after sitting on the idea since early 2019. The documentation process was a collaborative shoot; I was not just looking for straight-up photography of an object, but rather to depict a semiotic embodiment—that is, where I become part of the symbolism in the image that builds the allegory. What allegory am I creating? I wanted this work to be a signifier of my wider practice and PhD research, including one of the main critiques of my thesis. I will explain this further in a moment, along with some of the images that were created.
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