Landscape as Experience: An Integration of Senses and Soul

• Main Author: Barbara M Cheshire
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: James Cook University 2013-10-01
• Series: eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics
• Subjects: experiential; spiritual; senses; visual art; communication; visual language; place; north queensland; australia; tropics; art exhibition; landscape
• Online Access: https://journals.jcu.edu.au/etropic/article/view/3331/3271

The extent to which experiential and spiritual perceptions of the senses - in response to an event or place - can be transformed into visual art as a vehicle of communication, is yet to be understood. This paper, therefore, examines if a cohesive physical representation from a structured, visual art system is capable of developing a Christian experiential visual language that communicates a sensorial and transcendental experience of place; in this case North Queensland. Commentary on the physical representation subsequently tests if a holistic integration of one human’s sensorial response to place and an internal experience of Christian spirituality in that place can be communicated to the viewer through an art exhibition. The analysis found evidence to suggest that a spiritual essence of place - seeing place from inside and out - could be communicated and experienced by viewers of the exhibition.