The Skywall

“His blue is…spacious, still infinite and immeasurable in depth. It is a painting of air, something into which you can see, through the parts which are near you, into those which are far off; something which has no surface and through which we can plunge far and farther, and without stay or end, into the profundity of space.”
-John Ruskin

Since my childhood I’ve been captivated by the sky. It holds within it a transcendent wonder and glory that is both comforting and threatening, centering, and decentering. I was always intrigued by how its capricious nature brought about such physical and emotional contrasts. It was probably this fascination with the sky as a child that first led me to begin studying how it is we perceive the world around us and in particularly how I affect my own sense of perception.

I was so struck with how my eyes could actually change the shape of the sky or how I could actually see myself seeing, as the fluid moved inside my eye like little microscopic fish swimming around while I stared into the undifferentiated blue. These things added up over the years to become an important part of who I was as a person and eventually as an artist.

I began studying my sense of perception more seriously, specifically in its relation to the exploration of the intersections of contrasting phenomena, like light/darkness, energy/matter, sky/earth. Over the years I’ve found these intersections to be particularly revealing and to hold within them contemplative invitations into a deeper understanding of my own existence.

Not surprisingly, the intersection that most fascinated me as a child was where the vertical met the horizontal, where the sky touched the earth, the infinite joined the finite. We have all experienced this phenomenon to some degree by staring out into the open horizon, either from an elevated vantage point or before an open body of water or open field. It is calming and restorative to look out into that openness, to be stilled by the immensity of space.

But what if that immensity, that infinite space, could somehow descend from its lofty or distant home and come closer? Centuries ago, the Greeks sought to do this. You can see their attempt by going into the Pantheon and looking up. Like other ancient peoples and modern artists such as James Turrell, the Pantheon use a hole in a ceiling to bring an immediate connection to the sky and create the sensation that heaven has been ported to the ceiling overhead. As beautiful as these ancient and modern skyspaces are, they are often far above, and viewing straight on is almost impossible without laying on the floor beneath it, or staring with a crooked neck if one desires to really take the time to view it properly. Many don’t even see it, it’s so far above them, like the sky is everyday, they don’t really notice that something unique is happening in side the space, and they leave completely unaffected.

So, what if the sky could come closer then the ceiling? What if it could greet us on the plane of existence that we dwell in? What if that infinite space could stand immediately before us as a person standing on the other side of the room, peering into us with all its eternal wonder and glory?

A full Skywall accomplishes this in mythic proportions, it brings the full vertical dimension of the sky to the everyday horizontal space we live in. It no longer seems to be unattainably above us or unreachably beyond us – rather, the celestial blue descends into our midst standing before us, inviting us to greet it, as if for the first time. That which was beyond, has come near, somehow hovering on the wall, like a cosmic painting of unfathomable richness, depth and color; endlessly recreating itself, looking as earnestly into us as we are looking into it.

Standing before a Skywall entrances you in an odd and otherworldly way, inviting a kind of phenomenological seeing and soaking into the infinite blue. A blue that is always changing and always new. It tempts you, to plunge into its endless depths, to go further and further out, until you feel as if you are soaring inside that blue, wholly free. Here your eyes are not just seeing, they are sensing and plumbing the depths of space itself, challenging and expanding your perceptions.

Your eyes can play tricks on you here. At times the blue might seem as solid as the floor you stand on. But somehow, gradually, despite this perception, you feel yourself falling in. At other times you could feel an otherworldly sense of stillness and serenity and then, in the midst of that deep calm, you may stumble into a certain epiphenomenon which perplexed me as a boy: the unique experience of seeing your eyes seeing your eyes seeing; leading to new perspectives on how we see the world around us. Begging the question, do we truly see with our eyes, as we have always thought, or with some faculty that is seated deeper within us.

Somehow, this cosmic piece of art manages to be both strangely elusive and pleasantly familiar, all while inviting you in with a sense of wonder. To see it in its full glory can cause a kind of healthy and overwhelming disorientation where one may find themselves going through a list of internal explanations for what it is they are looking at, all of which seem to come up short. In the end you are left with a renewed sense of vision and a kind of ocular nourishment that revitalizes the mind, body, and spirit in a surprising way that leaves you longing to come back for more.

DWH

(More images coming soon. The image above is a full Skywall installation. It is available for temporary or permanent installation within galleries that can support its specific requirements. Smaller indoor and outdoor installations of various sizes are available for galleries, businesses, hospitals, and homes. For more information please contact us below)