Pareidolia

The Shock of the Now iv

Pareidolia; the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.

I’ve always loved working with negative space, the area of absence naturally overlooked, the parts that can get cut out.

Looking through the wake contact sheets he suddenly appeared in full life and gait towards me with a familiar tilt of his head, pleased to see me. Although he stands smaller, his scale skewed like a noon time shadow will do, I pursued and searched for him nonetheless, comfort, not from a truth this time but finding relief in a disbelief. I printed the image, and still saw him, I traced the negative shape to isolate it, I enlarged the scans on Photoshop, deriving a satisfying short lived comfort in the chase, choosing , then not choosing to see him, enjoying that I couldn’t unsee it; I cleaved to the words of William Kentridge; “It is not a mistake to see a shape in the clouds”.