Jewel Hovland
Invisible Window
The eye is where the world enters, where light turns to life and color. Taking inspiration from natural phenomena in neurobiology and visual science, my work is fueled by observation. I find that my love of Nature has brought my artwork to the physical anatomy of sight, often embodying the circle or repetitive pattern. The desired result engages a heightened awareness of the complacency we address our surroundings with as a symptom of our integration within culture. The physical structure of sensory organs informs their function, and deconstructing anatomy offers keen insights into the mechanics of the brain, society, evolutionary aesthetics, and fundamental realities.
Invisible Window is a conscious unraveling of essence from attributes: the articulation of what is human and environmental. This piece explores the link between what we see, how we see it, and why that connection is important. Taking cutouts from images of interior spaces and overlaying them on top of a continuous landscape offers a harmonious convergence of home and habitat. The tightly packed layer of flat paper “cells” corresponds to the retinal surface dotted with millions of rods and cones. The skin of objects which obscure the natural terrain remain unrecognizable yet undoubtedly hominid in origin.
The process of seeing stimulates all lobes of the brain and involves a wide range of interactions with memory, hormones, chemical reactions, and expectations. So much of the modern world is about separations: borders between spaces, confines within ideals, polarizing us-them discourse, and divided states of being. But like art, Nature reveals a shadow beyond any physical form; an insubstantial presence that renders all things, including us, as pinpoints within a larger whole. As we construct our perceptions through culture and community, our humanness disguises how Nature is everything- everywhere. We need a radically untrodden way of thinking, a new way of seeing. There is no exterior or interior, just a single eye that blinks from every vantagepoint.