DanHôo’s inaugural exhibition with A2Z Art Gallery is body of works entitled “Psynaps”. The artist practices a vigorous application of his chosen material, allowing his audience to find a point of connection between the heartfelt emotions and the psychologically induced feelings. Through his creations, the viewer can take an introspective journey to discover these connections of pigments and colour.
Art transmits a universal message that can be appreciated despite cultural, religious, and economic differences across time. It has been attracting attention through generations and has served as a symbolic communicative system, a method of expression and abstracting.
Through the artists practice, the role of art, both from a psychological and a neurological perspective becomes ever more apparent, allowing for an uninhibited appreciation and clear understanding by it’s audience. Through 30 years of studying this phenomenon, DanHôo focusses on the interaction between the artist and the viewer.
It’s widely understood in the neuroscientific field that the human brain is filled with billions of neurons “talking” to one another. This action happens at the synapse, the point of communication between two neurons. Synapses are chemical and electrical messages flowing directly between cells. When questioning whether neural systems might be involved in art production and art reception, scientists and scholars agree that these processes are active, and engaging the individual involved.
The heart is constantly responding to “orders” sent by the brain in the form of neural signals. However, it is not as commonly known that the heart actually sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart! Moreover, these heart signals have a significant effect on brain function—influencing emotional processing. In other words, not only does the heart respond to the brain, but the brain continuously responds to the heart.
In ancient Greece, the famed philosopher Aristotle was in favor of this cardiocentric (heart-centered) model. Aristotle opposed the brain centred model taught by his his teacher Plato, who said that the “eyes, ears, tongue, hands, and feet act in accordance with the discernment of the brain”.
It is now known in modern science that the heart has its own nervous system that is composed of approximately 40,000 neurons and it is said that our heart has it’s own “mini-brain”. Surprisingly, Aristotle may not have been completely wrong, it seems that the heart is not just a muscle pump, as many believe it to be. This cardiocentric vs. encephalocentric historical narrative is mirrored through the critique of DanHôo’s series “Psynaps”.
To view and experience his artworks is to find a connecting point where human physiology meets psychology. One can discover the feelings and their origins associated with the colours and the arrangement of the palette. Standing before a DanHôo artwork and allowing the meditative affect of the composition to wash over you is to access the source of the creation as originally intended by the artist.
