Perception We Create
Monday, September 14th, 2009What we actually see is a self created image of our past . We create this with our own senses, brain and our conscious mind. The images we perceive are atoms or so called energy fields from which we are creating our own perceptions that we have taught to ourselves or were taught by others. Much depends on our beliefs. We learn to contemplate and learn to form our surroundings. After a while, we get accustomed to what we think is out there. One of my big realizations was that I did not see beyond the Wall surrounding West Berlin. When the Wall fell, I learned how I did not perceive what was behind the wall. For example, you can see the Fernsehturm that is on the East side on Alexanderplatz from Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg. But when the Wall was still standing, I did not perceive it. I had blocked it out of my view. For me, all things ended with the Wall on the West side. After the Wall came down and I got used to the idea of the East side being now part of my environment, I suddenly saw the Fernsehturm standing on Kottbusser Tor. I had walked the path at Kottbusser Tor thousands of times never perceiving the Fernsehturm. And today when I pass the same street, I perceive the Fernsehturm, which stands tall and proud in the center of the city and which you cannot miss because of it’s presence. Many times, I wondered how I could not see this before when the city Berlin was divided. And today, I wonder what else have I missed walking through life not perceiving because of what I was exposed to or what I was taught and who I was taught by. Related to this, I wonder what will you (the audience) take away from the work that I created about the Berlin Wall not being there, not having experienced what I experienced. But, then again, that’s the mystery of art and life or life and art: we can receive many things from what we are confronted/interact with. I may not know what is taken/derived from or given back to the work.
Monday, September 14, 2009
The Fernsehturm am Alexanderplatz
