Suppose That Awareness Is Illusion (in silico Series, No.13 (2020) Digital Arts by Wilf Tilley
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This work is an "Open Edition"
Digital Arts,
Giclée Print / Digital Print
- Dimensions Several sizes available
- Several supports available (Fine art paper, Metal Print, Canvas Print)
- Framing Framing available (Floating Frame + Under Glass, Frame + Under Acrylic Glass)
- Categories Figurative
A Meditation
You sit with straight spine calm and attentive
to your breath, you become minutely aware
of the present and your presence in it,
gently observe that you are breathing in
and breathing out. Then just let go and let
the ego dissolve. It’s as simple as that.
Give no thought to the past or you’ll fall prey
to wishing it had never been; give no thought
to the future, lest anxiety take hold.
Thus is the present defined: an interval free
Of unwanted emotions, a still place
That is neither here nor there.
But suppose
that this still place, however much extended
by ever-slower breath, does not exist.
Suppose that awareness is illusion,
a glimpse of a long-closed railway station
on the express main line from past to future
from a train that never stops. And then suppose
that nothing else inhabits those dead platforms
but the carriages of time that hurtle on.
What use awareness then if not mindful
of past regrets not to be repeated,
of future threats for which to be prepared?
Mere passengers, have we no power to change
the speed and destination of our ride?
We need to be transported not just along
that line but over the heights and hollows
of our emotions, through the joys and sorrows
of our lives. Whenever we sit still and breathe
attentively, our attention is redirected
by an intrusive intention: to stop the train,
leap out and plant both feet firm in that station
where we rejoice in laughter, light and life.
Related themes
Wilf Tilley (Prof. Michael W. Miller) was born in the North of England and began his career as an actor, age 16, with the National Youth Theatre at The Old Vic in a production of Antony and Cleopatra in which Helen Mirren played Cleopatra and he carried a spear. “Wilf Tilley” (a combination of parental names) was part-adopted for a first solo exhibition at the AIR Gallery, London, when he was 27. Following an MA degree at the Royal College of Art, London, an interest in the neuro-anatomical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci led, via the Open University, to research on neuronal modelling in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics in the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and after a two-year Fellowship in the International Center for Medical Research, Kobe, was a founder member, then senior adviser at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, where he designed a brain science exploratorium (BrainBox). Wilf has held eight solo exhibitions, participated in group exhibitions internationally, and held a first retrospective in Japan (The Neuro-mytheologian And Other Works), in 2003. A novel (The Ladyboy Murders) was shortlisted for the Impress Prize for New Writers in 2015. In November/December 2017, he held a second retrospective at the Frederick Harris Gallery, Tokyo. And a recent portrait (Manami-san) is part of the New Light Art Prize Exhibition in the UK, touring five galleries nationally (2023-2024).
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Nationality:
JAPAN
- Date of birth : unknown date
- Artistic domains:
- Groups: Contemporary Japanese Artists
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