Liminal Contact

The alleged 'death' of painting has shaped the recent course of art but the model of the human mind upon which it rests is no longer considered accurate. Cognitive science has shown that the mind is not a blank slate but content-rich and as such humans bear an array of innate expectations of reality and non-reality which apply to painting as well as other human behaviours such as religion or music. This creative thesis takes in a series of case studies tracing the prehistory of painting in light of these cognitive propensities from the beginnings of human culture to Bushman rock art and the experiences of painters today to uncover a perennial function for painting which cannot die: the ubiquitous sensation of an 'otherworld' beyond the canvas or rock face. This approach to painting demands its rehabilitation as a humanising self-expression in a world increasingly estranged from art abandoning artistic ideology in favour of an image-based communion with human nature.