light economy
When I was a girl I would lie in the grass on my back to feel the earth spin. Things made sense to me when I was still, gazing upward, sensing the celestial movements that we are conditioned to tune out. Playing the part of intense observer put me in touch with a deeper knowledge of the me behind the me.
During these intense moments of observation, I began to notice tweaks in my perception. Glimpses of light spheres would dance across my field of vision in hypnotic flows. “What are those?” I inquired, but no one seemed to understand my meaning. I fancied the spheres were spirits or angels floating just beyond our view. In time I began to repress my perception of the lights, perhaps to protect myself. I had completely closed myself off from the metaphysical until a few years ago. Coming to perceive the lights again has been an intense remembering for me: playful, comforting, and expansive.
My entry point for this ongoing series is an acknowledgement and acceptance that I am able to perceive something that others may not be seeing. It is also an awareness that others have the ability to perceive things that I cannot. Some physicists theorize our 3D reality is a holographic representation of the 2D plane, which is now an established theory known as the holographic principle. At the nano level of the universe, subatomic particles are themselves comprised of smaller bits of information. These bits, potentially stored in flat 2D (not voluminous), project their information out in a holographic experience of reality.
This led me to wonder: What if the ability to perceive metaphysical and psychic phenomena is because the observer has a particular filter or sensitivity for that information? What if my ability to perceive the light forms that I can see is because I have a certain filter? And, even if we can’t perceive this information with our visual cortices, maybe we have a sixth sense that the information co-exists alongside us anyway. Light Economy is an exploration of the notions that our five senses are limited and that we edit out sensorial information to help us make sense of the world. Through this series of double-exposure composite images, I represent these dual planes of reality—objects from the material world and additional information that I believe is entangled with this reality. I imagine both planes exist snugly alongside and, thus, radiate through one another, boundless and unconfined by frames.
light economy signifies an exchange between energetic realms, both real and illusory. Economy refers not only to the management of resources within a given structure but also to the structure itself--the totality of resources flowing back and forth within the system in a perceivable way. To be economical is to be spare or minimalist in your actions and from the standpoint of consciousness, it can imply a drilling down to the most salient points within your awareness. May we become aware of this light economy in order to first bear witness to the layers of perception or illusion. May this awareness shed further light on the illusion of our apparent reality, what is known as maya in the Eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism.