Perceptual Vigilance

Curated by Kirsty Cockerill

Perceptual Vigilance is the act of noticing something somewhere only to subsequently notice it everywhere. A situation, a gesture, a colour, an object, anything that holds particular importance to the individual is easier for them to perceive.  Perceptual Vigilance is the process by which individuals activate a form of selective perception based on their particular frame of reference. It is a tool that assists us all; artists, curators, and the public at large to sort through our sensory data. Perceptual Defence,its binary opposite is likewise a tool, and to commonly a blindness that allows an individual to not perceive reality in order to protect themselves from internal dissonance and psychologically unpleasantness. Thirteen painters negotiate their individual concerns in an exhibition distilled to reflect as much their own, as the curator’s Perceptual Vigilance. Political surrealism, the binding of stories, an investigation of truth and blindness, the awake and the sleeping, reality and dreams.