Can the power of images such as these that draw the viewer, and challenge our perception give us some insight into altered perceptions in dementia, and offer perhaps a captivating rather than a disturbing experience ? It is often said that some people living with dementia experience pattern as 3-dimensional or moving, and therefore potentially disturbing. In Realistic Magic: Objects, Ontology and Causality, Andrew Morton describes the:” aesthetic dimension as a the causal dimension.. you are working directly with people’s optic nerve and field of vision..” He describes his experience of viewing the paintings of aboriginal painter Yukultji Nanpangati :” The gaze emanates from the force field of a Napangati painting. It gathers me into it’s disturbing, phantasmal unfolding of zigzagging lines and oscillating patches.”.. ” At a distance it looks like a woven mat of reeds or slender stalks, yellowed, sun baked, resting on top of some darker, warmer depth. A generous, relaxed, precise, careful yet giving, caring lineation made of some blobby dots. The warmth reminds me of Klee. The lines remind you of Bridget Riley. As you come close and begin to face the image it begins to play, to scintillate, to disturb the field of vision. It oscillates and ripples,..”
I know what I like 