The Nude: Subjective Reality and the Perception of the" New"
From the oldest known human artifacts 35,000 years ago (the Venus of Hohle Fels) to today, the female nude has been rendered to express each society’s visions and concerns of beauty and culture. These historic icons of fertility and plenty are expounded upon today through Barnett's nudes. His images of the nude deal with the female form, imaging who and how we are reflecting upon our ideas of abundance, optimism, fecundity and the perception of self.
While objective reality causes us to accept an image without further question, and, thus, without perceiving it as “new," Barnett’s purpose is to achieve the “new” through subjective reality: the nuanced exaggeration of figures and faces, by which means they become idiosyncratic, unique.
Biologically, we are all programmed to produce endorphins in the brain in response to new and unique stimuli. These compounds enhance the memory by simultaneously stimulating the pleasure centers—thereby providing positive reinforcement to the perception. Such processes helped our primitive ancestors survive.
Subjective reality supports the human need to explore—in this case, the full range of emotions. It guides us to the opportunity to see more and to widen our experiences. By appealing to basic biologic mechanisms of perception, the subjective reality image enriches the relationship between the audience and the work. |
