January 2023
‘I don’t get it. It looks like a bunch of mish-mosh. My three-year-old paints like that. You get paid money for this?’
Statements like these are often followed by a request for some explanation, or to be told what they should be seeing.
‘Do you like the painting?’ I ask attempting to dislodge the viewer from thinking... What is it about the painting that you like or do not like? Can you put words to the experience? Can you tolerate feeling of being ‘bewilderplexed’?
Not knowing, but feeling suggests a different kind of experience. One that is often very uncomfortable.