Bear Kirkpatrick - Mija

Bear Kirkpatrick- Mija

Bear Kirkpatrick’s work questions the limits of perception and traces “traits of consciousness.” Kirkpatrick’s work seeks to give shape to the non-visible world. Kirkpatrick admits that being human is imperfect, incomplete, and ephemeral. Yet, what we are composed of is eternal, and must carry inherent properties. Kirkpatrick rationalizes the theoretical substructure of his work:

“We carry with us into this life more than simply the codes for the present . . . if we carry inherited physical and behavioral traits, wouldn’t we also carry traits of consciousness? . . . Neurologists tell us that all of our human sensory inputs rush in from all ports and are then synthesized in the brain into one seamless experience. Because senses overlap in their gathering and there is repeated data, a certain amount of information gets tossed out, either because it is considered faulty, already better said, or does not fit the picture the brain needs to present at that moment. This got me wondering about what gets tossed out. We are a learned thing, an ever-gathering animal- nothing is lost.”

While these qualities Kirkpatrick considers may not be visible in the realm of “normal” perception, they may be reached for. Bear Kirkpatrick’s work seeks to elude, imagine, and express these traits. This video loop (and related photograph | shown below) depicts an adorned mud-covered figure. Digital layers awaken and the visage obscures, fading into darkness then reemerging as the audio of a passing storm and birdsongs play along with broken-notes of intermittent music.

Bear Kirkpatrick - Mija - from The Old Ones Series