Abstract

A presentation of a piece of writing delivered as a spoken text in a symposium of Practice, which was seen alongside a video work in an accompanying exhibition.
In August 2016 I visited Vienna to spend time with and pay attention to Bruegel's masterpiece,
'Hunters in the Snow' in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This was a painting I felt huge attachment
to, but had never seen in person. I wanted to see what could be unpacked from looking hard, in
person, which is unattainable or unknowable from looking at reproductions or from reading about
the work. Meeting a ‘hero’ of mine was not in this case a disappointment; I was and am still in awe.
I wanted to try to capture what the primary encounter of a painting enables. Alongside the lookingthinking,
notes were made of what was noticed by paying attention to one painting. The
presentation will attempt to present this process of thought-from-looking.
I cannot visualise. I have no way of recalling the image of this painting, or anything else, in
the mind. Memory is therefore often elusive and fleeting. The text produced whilst in the process of
looking at 'Hunters in the Snow' has become a substitute for a visual memory, an attempt to
capture what perhaps others take for granted. By not showing any images, but instead presenting
only words to be heard and read by others, there is an attempt to give an insight into whatit means
to not visualise; to have aphantasia.