Painted Premonitions

[meg]

It is believed that people have premonitions that come to them through dreams. I have heard that some artists have premontions that they have externalised through their paintings, and this is a phenomenon that interests me. I suppose another perspective on this involves the theory of manifestation, the possibility that the thought, dream, painting, etc. has in some way influenced an event, rather than prophesised it. What are your thoughts?

[The Destiny Pilot]

It can and does happen, probably more frequently than is generally acknowledged. An interesting question: What - if anything - sets it off?

[Iain Whittaker]

Even though I have had repeated episodes of painted premonitions, enough experience to feel convinced that something strange is going on, I have no plausible explanation other than the anecdotes of these experiences themselves. Exactly what it is that activates or propels these freakish premonitions and events remains a mystery to me. It seems that some kind of visual alchemy connected to subliminal mythic currents and collective inheritance takes place; a synergy of different forces and elements that are triggered in ways which relate to shamanistic traditions and induction processes.

My understandings remain subjective, and, despite their conviction, speculative. By its very nature, this experience is unpredictable, evasive, and has no guarantee of continuation. While the uncanny timings and gestational elements of these experiences are fascinating, I have no interest in trying to prescribe or manufacture the circumstances that will bring an event on. The idea of mastering prescient experience seems preposterous and false.

I do not feel in control of these events when they manifest. A painting can 'turn on you' badly. Some real life experiences that appear to have been precipitated by art making have been horrible, pushing already dark content to scary places - having said that, these experiences are not always ugly or ultimately negative. While they may prove uncomfortable and challenging at the time, new found psychic dimensions connected to painting give a form of authenticity that cannot be found elsewhere. They affirm a maverick path at the same time as emphasising navigational danger.

For me this phenomena tends to operate on intimate personal levels rather than on more accessible worldly ones. Recent experiences are still being worked through. One day I would like to share them – they are good stories to tell - but the right context in which to present them needs to be established. I also need more time to digest the collective meaning of different episodes and investigate the phenomena more deeply. You really cannot do one incident justice without going into the others – they all tend to flow together.

We are told by art 'authorities' than art can never change things – and that the domains of painting have been fully explored. We are also led to believe that painting is less conceptually challenging and more passive in relation to other more interactive, idea driven art forms. I don't swallow any of this.

Iain

[jlof]

What your ego knows is much less than you know by intuition.

[Iain Whittaker]

In his paper, “Old Men's Trousers and the Making Strange of Things”, writer Alan Garner discusses the creative act and how language has a dependence on myth. He suggests that a spectrum of creativity exists, ranging from a basis in the external or “observational” to the “visionary”. He avoids the pitfalls of setting up simplistic binaries, suggesting that, “The creative act being rooted in the immensity of the unconscious, itself named as such by psychology, will dodge all attempts at understanding. It describes itself only in its manifestation; it can be guessed but not grasped”. Instructively, he then goes on to address visionary experience without attempting to pin it down or make a specimen of himself :

The “visionary” is something strange that derives its existence from the hinterland of the mind, as if it had emerged from the abyss of prehuman ages. It is a primordial experience that surpasses our understanding. The very enormity gives it its value and its impact. Sublime, pregnant with meaning, chilling the blood with its strangeness, it arises from timeless depths: demonic, grotesque, it bursts on our human standards of value and aesthetic form. On the other hand, it can be a revelation, the heights and depths of which are beyond our fathoming, or a vision of beauty we can never put into words. It makes quite other demands on the power of the artist than does the foreground of life. It rends the curtain on which is painted the picture of an ordered world, and allows a glimpse into the abyss of the unborn and of things yet to be.
The Manchester Grammar School Philosophical Society: 14 September 1999.

[masong]

It is believed that people have premonitions that come to them through dreams. I have heard that some artists have premontions that they have externalised through their paintings, and this is a phenomenon that interests me. I suppose another perspective on this involves the theory of manifestation, the possibility that the thought, dream, painting, etc. has in some way influenced an event, rather than prophesised it. What are your thoughts?

One of the most compelling works of art I have ever seen is Jourdan Arpelle’s “Geist” series. As an art historian and writer I do not say this lightly, since I have seen quite a bit of art in my time and I am not one for superlatives. Taking a first look at them, you might not instantly know what makes the 17 small, roughly 12 inches square canvasses, titled “Geist: Ghost, Mind, Spirit/Premonitions,” so special.