Salvation by Art
[O]rdinary reality is like a bad imitation, a cheap parlour trick in a grimy hotel, an eternally baited trap for the mind and senses. The gnostics had this much right: we’re trapped in our bodies and we can’t see our way out. The day-to-day world we create with our perceptions has no independent reality; it’s all done with mirrors.
A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture… and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.
Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. It is a question of producing ourselves, not things that enslave us.
Art is really about perception, and mine have been changed through visiting other realities.