Emergence of Perception

Artist: David Spriggs
Date: 2008
Dimensions: 244 × 61 × 122 cm
96 × 24 × 48 in
Materials: White paint on layered transparent sheets in a display case
Exhibited: Art Mûr, Montréal

Form appears through movement, as an event created between sculpture and viewer.

Emergence of Perception explores the moment at which dispersed marks begin to register as an animated form. Their alignment gives the subject rhythm and apparent momentum, while each change of viewpoint alters its continuity. Seeing unfolds through the movement of the body. The viewer follows contours, anticipates their direction and carries one impression into the next, giving the encounter a duration of its own. The sculpture makes this activity part of its subject: perception is experienced as something taking shape in time. Erin Manning develops this relationship between movement, rhythm and perception in her essay “Of Force Fields and Rhythm Contours: David Spriggs’ Animate Sculptures,” published in Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy (MIT Press).

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, 2008. White spatial form painted across layered transparent sheets. — *Emergence of Perception*, installation view.

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, frontal detail. White spatial form painted across layered transparent sheets. — *Emergence of Perception*, frontal detail.

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, full art installation view. White spatial form painted across layered transparent sheets. — *Emergence of Perception*, full installation view.

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, close detail of the radiating field. — *Emergence of Perception*, close detail of the radiating field.

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, detail of the dark central form. White spatial form painted across layered transparent sheets. — *Emergence of Perception*, detail of the dark central form.

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, detail of the luminous field. White spatial form painted across layered transparent sheets. — *Emergence of Perception*, detail of the luminous field.

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, reverse detail showing the central support. — *Emergence of Perception*, reverse detail showing the central support.

David Spriggs, Emergence of Perception, side view showing the transparent planes. — *Emergence of Perception*, side view showing the transparent planes.