‘Pre Human Continuum’ 2019

Gallery Waldburger Wouters, Brussels

Installation view: 'Pre Human Continuum' 2019. gallery Waldburger Wouter

Installation view: 'Pre Human Continuum' 2019. gallery Waldburger Wouters

Installation view: 'Pre Human Continuum' 2019. gallery Waldburger Wouters

Installation view: 'Pre Human Continuum' 2019. gallery Waldburger Wouters

Installation view: 'Pre Human Continuum' 2019. gallery Waldburger Wouters

Installation view: 'Pre Human Continuum' 2019. gallery Waldburger Wouters

Will for power gains knowledge, 2019 oil on canvas 122x84 cm

The Probability of arrival is the probability of being, 2019 oil on canvas 122x84 cm

Effect of an outside observer, 2019 oil on canvas 122x84 cm

The probability of the subject sits within its poten ality, 2019 oil on canvas 122x84 cm

Nietzsche's Throne, Wood/canvas, 310x70x200cm, 2019

Tree of Conscious Power, 2019 oil on canvas 187x123 cm

Door Text 1, 2019 oil on canvas 89x67 cm

Door Text 2, 2019 oil on canvas 89x67 cm

Your Limit is Your Oneness, wood/canvas, 150x90x30cm, 2019

Mediators of Timing, 2017 clay, wax, aluminium, wood 88x38x18 cm

Performance Lecture: Wood's theory on the origins of the universe, its relation to quantum mechanics and the evolution of effective-consciousness. click on the link to watch the video. https://vimeo.com/337585899

On the works of Dome Wood

Written by Sorana Munsya, February 2019

An interesting thing about Dome Wood’s exhibition ‘Pre-human continuum’ is that its discourse can fit in with both the domain of psychology and the politcal field.

Modern Western societies consider consciousness, and its mastery, as one of the central values in a properly functioning human system. Moreover, the idea of evolution takes shape in a clear continuum, moving from the unconscious towards a state of total consciousness – of oneself, of others and of one’s environment. The unconscious is seen as ineffectual or even potentially dangerous for others and for oneself – dangerous and ineffectual because it supposedly does not marshal its power and its active potential on the surrounding context and, above all, because it might escape the tight grip of control of the self.

What is more, in the literature and philosophy developed within the domain of psychology, all that is related to the unconscious is seen as uncontrollable, and only employable insofar as it can be read and interpreted in rational ways – in the ways of consciousness, of knowledge. Even if the unconscious part of the psyche is recognised as playing a decisive role in human behaviour, Western modernity has kept it well within the boundaries of a space inhabited by ideas such as intuition, sensi vity and feeling – terms and concepts that are perfectly valid when discussing art, for example, but completely ignored in a context of decision-making and even power.

One’s sophistication is linked to an accumulation of knowledge. In the age of internet and social networks, where information is being disseminated without discrimination, knowledge seems accessible and cheap. It proliferates all around us and infiltrates our consciousness, giving us the illusion of being freely offered and of turning us into masters of our environment.

The illusion of power created by a seemingly endless growth of knowledge goes hand in hand with the slow diminution of our capacity to use ‘extra-conscious’ zones that help us navigate through society. Intuition and sensory experience – with all their utility for survival – are being devalued and are no longer mobilised in a critical analysis of society. In other words, the effort to gain and employ knowledge acquired through channels relying more on subjectivity, is disappearing, rendering this kind of knowledge worthless.

However, now that we are no longer exercising this competence, we lose confidence in what we know. Our awareness of our own power is abandoning us. With his work, Dome Wood touches upon a highly political subject: our awareness of our competences, even our awareness of our capacity to create knowledge based on feeling and linked to experience. That is political, because when we become aware of what we know – in the midst of this ocean of information – we become agents in our lives and, without a doubt, vectors of change. Humanity’s potential and the power of knowledge will be able to flourish.

Flourish, yes, but in a certain clandestinity, for the powers that be feed o the knowledge potential of their subjects. They ingest it and then excrete it as consumable and mass-reproducable objects. Survival in this vast expanse of information should, maybe, be based upon a production of knowledge that is quotidian, intimate, underground and communal.

Dome Wood

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