We caught up with artist Dustin J Voggenreiter to uncover the inspiration behind his Metro Arts exhibition Panopticon.
Voggenreiter’s work explores the idea of our limited capacity to understand the world around us.
News · 27 March 2024
Interview with the Artist – Panopticon
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE EXHIBITION…
Dustin J Voggenreiter (DJV): Panopticon explores the idea of our limited capacity to understand the world around us.
As creatures born with perceptions geared towards survival, we grasp at making sense of the complex, chaotic reality we inhabit. Concealment within this work poetically alludes to the gaps in our species ability to understand reality.
This idea extends from Plato’s famous cave shadow allegory (500+ BCE) to avant-garde theories proposed by Cognitive Psychologist Dr Donald Hoffman, all of which highlight the inadequacy of human perception.
The monotony inherent in the GIF format channels the looping, unresolved nature of these ideas. We peer out from our species-specific interface upon the chaos surrounding us.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS AN ARTIST?
DJV: I’m a bit of a science nerd at heart. So my art practice is equal parts research and grappling with difficult scientific propositions, along with a naïve curiosity into the ways I can reappropriate materials which can represent (in an abstract way) these ideas.
Being an artist is a mode by which I try to make sense of the world – it’s a licence to create objects and experiences that might intensify and fixate on difficult concepts.
WHO INSPIRES YOU AND WHY?
DJV: My inspirations are the scientists and thinkers that are proposing creative solutions to the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness. It’s a source of amazement that consciousness – the very lens through which we do the work of science – is an unresolved phenomenon.
It’s exciting to live in a world where big questions remain unanswered and unaccounted for, because it means that creativity and curiosity must continue to be an intrinsic part of human nature.
I’m obsessed with the proposals and writing of neuroscientist Dr Donald Hoffman, along with conceptual artist and one-time mentor Dr Dominic Redfern, both of whom have shaped
the direction of my artistic output.
HOW DID YOU DISCOVER YOUR LOVE FOR VISUAL ARTS?
DJV: My attraction to art has always been the same type of attraction that woodworkers or mechanics have to their work – it allows for complicated ideas to be physically resolved.
I assume that’s why my work is also textural – it’s a way to rebel against a modern world in which tactile experiences are becoming rare, where sterile ideas and objects leave me wanting to touch and feel materials that reveal a little more about reality.
Panopticon exhibits in the Metro Arts Galleries 8 – 29 JUN, West Village, West End.
Click here for gallery opening times.
