Peering into the Crack of the Divine

Abstract

The basic function of the human mind ultimately works as a sort of reducer valve, perceiving that which is needed for basic survival. My practice stems from those metaphysical moments when that valve is cracked, when we get to peer through it and catch a glimpse of what has historically been deemed as the ‘divine’. Literally and conceptually I seek to take banal objects/experiences and break apart and reconfigure them into symbols that denote my personal experiences with 'peering into the crack of the divine'. I handle it as poetry, where upon established linguistic formulas can be bent, broken, un-made and remade to form an arbitrary language.This thesis probes these cracks in human perception by discussing altered states of consciousness, whether that be through meditation, lucid dreaming, sensory deprivation, mind altering substances and dance and chant rituals.