The Overview Effect

A long-standing curiosity about the interchange between human consciousness and the natural world underpins this series of paintings. When I paint, as when I am close to nature, I am aware of a sense of mystery and recognition occurring in unison - it feels like an ancient legacy that is deeply rooted in my body revealing itself one mark at a time.

What we call ‘intuition' is now known to be a complex process of pattern recognition based on previous experience. How far back into deep time does this experience go? Could we hold within our cells a memory of the division of the very first cell - of the moment that we became a ‘self’ separated from our earth-mother?

The Romantic painters form a major influence upon my work as they engaged with similar ideas regarding the entanglement of human sensation with nature in the early 19th century. There are complex understandings of this in indigenous knowledge systems and similar enquiries at the intersections of science, religion and culture in every age. It is not a new enquiry but it is an urgent one now that the topic of ‘human extinction’ has entered contemporary discussion.

I have named this body of work, The Overview Effect. The term, coined by writer, Frank White, outlines the experience of cosmic connection described by many astronauts viewing the earth from space. They each speak of, ‘truly transformative experiences including senses of wonder and awe, unity with nature, transcendence, and universal [kinship]’ which results in a (not previously held) feeling of responsibility for all living things. This profound shift in consciousness is so uncannily similar that scientists have wondered whether zero-gravity is responsible for new connections (or re-connections) in the brain.

My paintings have been described as more like biographies than depictions of places and this resonates with me. If we can begin to truly understand how we are related to the oceans and clouds perhaps we can make the meaningful shift in consciousness that will characterise the next phase in human evolution.

THE OVERVIEW EFFECT
Curatorial + Co. Art Space, Redfern
March 10 - 20, 2021