For this exercise, I recreated a piece I made according to Lewitt’s 24th Sentence on Conceptual Art: “Perception is Subjective.”
I created the original piece, a halftone-processed pill capsule with broken rings in front of it, about two years ago. Since this is the first Art class I’ve taken, I didn’t have many previous pieces to work with. I am a Design major, so my portfolio consists mostly of functional designs and few standalone creative pieces.
Although I thought I had completed it on time, I had not actually finished the assignment as I misinterpreted Lewitt’s words. I mistook “Perception” for “Perspective” – Perspective being an individual’s point of view versus Perception being the way the individual interprets and process what it is that they’re viewing. So, my approach was to shift the piece’s perspective to show the capsule from straight on rather than from the side, so that the broken rings appear to the side rather than as an overlay.
After realizing my mistake, I sat with the conflict for some time. As I had never created a piece of conceptual art before, I had no idea where to go. I discussed with friends and roommates to figure out how a piece of pre-existing art with no assigned meaning could grow into something conceptual. Then it occurred to me than I was perceiving the piece from my own perspective. I wasn’t just looking at it, I was perceiving it. Because I’m viewing it from my own perspective with my pre-existing knowledge about the piece, Lewitt’s words are true. Perception is subjective, and anyone else who looks at it from their own perspective can perceive it in different ways from me.
Although it may not be a work of complex, thought-provoking conceptual art, it did help me understand conceptual art better.
