Brendan Barnes

My work is broken up into series, each with a distinct part to play in the elimination of the mind. The mind has the capacity to create imagined worlds, worlds which distract from the present moment, from the real. Our mind’s ability to create alternate realities must be obliterated in order to perceive with clarity the present moment. It is this experience of completeness in the present moment that drives me to create art.

Much of my process in order to achieve the obliteration of the mind is done through a careful elimination of my own sense of understanding. I make decisions which I do not understand deliberately. Each series has a different process in order to achieve these results. The process is meant to confound the rational capacity in the mind in order to unlock a forgotten ability, that of unknowing. When the mind is uninhibited by knowing or understanding, the world is full of possibilities and endlessly open. There is a vast open space full of wonder available to each of us so long as we are able to set aside our need for knowing what that is.