Richard Keys

Having originally trained as a sculptor I see how surface and sculptural qualities persist in my paintings and drawings, and how these two dimensional works are ‘objects’ as well as illusory representations of places and people.

I am motivated by a lifelong fascination with the mysterious business of perception. I am currently drawn to the research of cognitive neuroscientist Anil Seth and his suggestion that when we perceive reality, given the nature of our sensory faculties, we are essentially filling in blanks in order to make sense of it.

 

“The brain doesn't hear sound or see light. What we perceive is its best guess of what's out there in the world.” 

Anil Seth https://thecitesite.com/authors/anil-seth/. (n.d.). Https://Thecitesite.Com/Authors/Anil-Seth/. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://thecitesite.com/authors/anil-seth/

 

 

These artworks are evidence of trying to make sense of my lived experience of places and people; they are my ‘best guesses’. Having led a peripatetic life in international education they are also part of a process of locating myself in new contexts, they are part of a process of becoming familiar with new experiences.

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I am drawn to art that holds the viewer hovering between the acceptance of the rendered image and awareness of the surface it is made on. That point of ambiguity between the recognized image and the surface it works against and with, is exciting; it makes it possible to have a heightened awareness of ones’ mind working to perceive. I find this to be joyful. Whilst making the work I am striving to find this point of balance between surface and image and when showing the work, hope that the experience is shared by the viewer. 

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Opening event: https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citynow/social-life/live-events/opening-of-best-guesses-at-lido-art-space/

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