WHEN : 28th – 31st August
WHERE : Jugglers Artspace
Dualism can be simply defined as a set of opposites that exist in our lives ie white│black, love│hate, hot│cold, good│evil, male│female etc. It is the notion that all concepts consist of two contrasting qualities, where, according to Western thought, one dominates the other. Metaphysical dualism is the mind│matter debate which raises questions about the existence of the soul. Where does our thinking come from? What is love? Is our mind our conscience? Why do we seek the truth? Why are we curious? If we humans all have the same physical characteristics, what gives us our individuality? Is it environmental factors or is it intrinsic? Such thoughts invoke the well-known nurture│nature philosophy.
Western culture conforms to a system of compartmentalising in our desire to make sense of the world and our experiences. What is our understanding of life│death? Without sorrow, we do not know joy.
How do we interact with the built│natural world? From an anthropocentrism perspective, humans believe they are superior to nature because to put it simply, nature does not have any mental attributes, therefore has no value – another mind│matter debate.
As life propels at a rapid pace, dualism is in a constant state of flux. Technology and social media are blurring the boundaries of public│private spaces. Never before in history have we been bombarded by images of war, celebrities, art, sex, fashion etc. We compare ourselves to these images, with a positive│negative reaction, thus gauging our place in the world.
Without these dualisms, we cannot measure our experiences, and determine balance in our lives. Do dualisms exist so we can merely differentiate or are they contradictions to confuse?
