If you shine a light into your subconscious, what do you imagine you’d see? Will it be clear images with easily relatable meanings attached – a clear roadmap definitively detailing what you know and believe? Or might the light shine upon overlapping images drawn from memory and incidents – along with a sense of half-submerged meanings, bobbing, sinking and then rising again – teasing you. If you believe the latter explanation, then Om (omerioz) welcomes you to his world, a world of semi-lucid dreaming. It’s your world really, mine too, existing at the edge of consciousness, inviting us to peer into the well of our perception. Works that teases and draws us through intellect into (sometimes) unfiltered emotion.
Wandering through Om’s gallery wasn’t easy. It was no ‘walk in the park’. Each work I paused before reached out and disturbed my equilibrium giving rise to fleeting feelings of disquiet, puzzlement, warmth and always recognition, recognition. Seldom have I experienced such a visceral reaction to art which both disturbed and delighted me. If good or great art arises from our mental and emotional perception of what it is to be alive, then Om’s works delivers on that perception.
I asked Om what his process was in creating these works and he replied he takes his photos from real life and, using Photoshop to apply layer upon layer, he gives them a new depth and meaning. It takes many days for him to finish a work. What do the images mean to him?
“It is more what you see than what I see. I understand my work better when others tell me what they see.”
This struck me as very apt given the Rorschach type quality of his works – it affects each viewer at a subconscious level with a few pathways meandering back into consciousness mind.
.Don’t take my word for it – see for yourself. Try not to dash through his gallery – you’ll miss its depth and promise. Its rewards. Stop before each work and allow yourself to become immersed – recognition will follow (there are three floors to navigate via a TP button by the door).
The Gallery Opening was well attended with much of the local chat centering on individual reaction to Om’s works. Those in attendance were treated to the powerful, passionate and silky tones of musician/singer Jean Munro and the extraordinarily talented and adventurous Gypsy Dhrua. Gypsy spiced the evening with original songs inspired by famous paintings of artists such as Picasso, Chagall and Dali – quite an accomplishment.
DJ Shel closed off the evening with exquisitely curated songs to accompany the Champagne fogged dancers in the Alley outside the gallery.
Om’s work can be viewed at this location:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lanestris/134/40/104
