Paper short abstract

Excavation sites and the domination of the eye

Paper long abstract

Excavation sites and the domination of the eye

Access to archaeological excavation sites has provided me with an exposure to landscapes that I perceive as emphatically material and temporal. Over a number of years these encounters have changed me as a person and have had a profound influence on my artwork.

I recognize that the experience of these landscapes has engendered a gradual re-calibration of my senses, a realigning and a balancing of the faculties. This has en-richened the way I respond to my daily environment and has stimulated an ambition to broaden the sensory range of my painting.

As a consequence, it has illuminated the extent to which the everyday media of mass communication and much popular culture implicate us in a hierarchical ordering of the senses, favouring the visual above all else. This state of affairs goes largely unchallenged within the fine arts.

I intend to outline how the experience of excavation sites, filtered through the production of paintings that seek multi-sensory qualities, has made me aware of the degree to which the current stress on image-based material in contemporary life sets a limit on what can be communicated and on what can be experienced.