KALEIDOSELVES
The Kaleidoscopes to Life: The Selves, The Psyche, and the Soul
Every life is touched by happiness and sadness, life and death, success and failure, pain and loss, and a million other bits and pieces in between. Too often we focus only on certain pieces and, for better or worse, allow them to define who we are; but we are so much more than a few individual experiences. We may not always agree or even like what we discover but the mere act of opening ourselves to consider different perspectives somehow enriches us. It’s all about how we choose to look at things, really. I am passionate about exploring different perspectives on life and how we, as humans, live. The beauty and the magic of thinking of life as a kaleidoscope is that you take all of the moments of your life - the good, the bad, and even the ugly - and shuffle the bits and pieces together to create spectacularly beautiful images. These images are singularly unique and precious because we also understand that the slightest shift can quickly change the overall picture.
‘Kaleidoselves’ are a derivation of various works under ‘Myselves.’
Kaleidoscope is a Greek term loosely interpreted as “a scope for viewing constantly changing beautiful forms.’’ The mind is a beautiful form. I have often reflected on how the kaleidoscope reminds me of our conscious and subconscious mind. As a kaleidoscope operates on the principle of multiple reflections, so does our mind. This shifting of the kaleidoscope of the mind often relates to who we’re with, the environment we’re in at any given time and our thoughts. It is “able to perceive any given situation from a multitude of perspectives at will -- selecting from a rich repertoire of collective data held within our subconscious mind.” Our mind is ‘agile, flexible, self-aware, and informed by a diversity of experiences.’
The mind, as a kaleidoscope, is continuously shifting.
In this series, observed in the wheels of the kaleidoscope rotation are the fragment shifts of each artworks’ various colours, ‘selves’ and patterns. To unravel this conceptual tangle, it need only be imposed that while an image can certainly be split up, what results visually is simply another image that is ‘whole.’ In other words, whilst the composite images formed in the kaleidoscopic manner is obviously made up of one image, they are no longer just incomplete pieces of the whole artwork, rather, they are multiplications of the initial works image, opened to a kaleidoscopic perspective. What is then produced by this multiplication are visually whole-images - as opposed to incomplete pieces of what was previously imaged as a whole.
To comprehend the metaphoric relevance of the kaleidoscopic images in terms of the split is to understand immediately that what the kaleidoscope breaks up is visual familiarity; just like the mind. The kaleidoscopic images are metaphorically appropriate because the generated images are some incomplete version of the original artwork, the kaleidoscope simply breaks-up the familiar. Just like the familiarity of the mind with our identity, even as we constantly evolve, there is a foundation and pattern to the formlessness; what then emerges through, is a portrait of the mind with familiar elements from the original image source. That is to say that, the mind and life viewed through the kaleidoscope would have, to all intents and purposes, a certain look that we can assume would be familiar to us no matter the circumstance…even in its ‘incompleteness.’
Speed up the kaleidoscope or slow it down, as the patterns of life change, they still maintain certain tendencies in this formlessness. Yet, it is precisely this formlessness that gives life form - a universal human form. A form that exaggerates life’s formlessness in patterns.
Just like the kaleidoscope, the human form constantly changes yet maintains certain tendencies; a continual rebirthing.
A constantly flowing pattern.
Metaphorically speaking, our thoughts may also shift and vary, depending on our strength of character, intention and the ability to elevate our thoughts at will. You have the power to embrace the nature of the kaleidoscope - to keep moving, growing, and seeing the beauty in each new perspective as a natural part of your journey to becoming the person you are meant to be.
