“WE DON'T PERCEIVE THE WORLD AS IT IS BUT AS IT IS USEFUL FOR US TO DO SO” Anil Seth

Kaye McGarva is an award-winning artist based in Hawkes Bay. Her Crease paintings are not only unique and beautiful, they are also explorations into perception and the act of looking.

My work is about ways of looking and seeing the world. I’m interested in how our brains are constantly engaged with interpreting what we see. The idea that we see what we expect to see most of the time and so are instrumental in creating our own reality.

I love how everything is connected… like the creases and folds you see in a crumpled sheet can also be seen when looking at a rugged landscape. In his poem Arawata Bill, Denis Glover describes New Zealand as looking like an unmade bed.

In Aldous Huxley’s “The Doors of Perception”, Huxley sees creases and folds as portals that offer glimpses into hidden dimensions that are inaccessible in ordinary states of consciousness. I like to think my paintings give the viewer the opportunity to experience that.

CV/aWARDS/EXHIBITIONS

Perception

British neuroscientist, Anil Seth, tells us our brain takes a "best guess" approach to interpreting sensory data.w We don't necessarily see things as they are, but are influenced by our past experiences, expectations, beliefs, as well as cultural factors. 

Above are two images of the same painting that has been rotated. The convex shadowy forms in the first image change to looking concave (or vice-versa). At some point in the rotation the forms seem to keep switching from one state to the other in a permanent loop. This phenomenon can cause a physical sense of unease known as disequilibrium.