Real is a Feeling

Gildar Gallery presents Real is a Feeling, an exhibit featuring mechanical image reproduction as a way of exploring subjective perception. Part of Denver's Month of Photography, this thematic group show was inspired by the song of the same name by artist / musician / provocateur Travis Egedy aka Pictureplane. This group show consists of a selection of works all immersed in the manipulation, questioning and fabrication of the real. Perspective wobbles between the simulated and the sincere as authentic copies, altered documentation and artifacts of both convincing and suspect origin encounter each other. Internal themes emerge amongst these objects in dialog — surface, beauty, authorship and the spiritual interact through an underlying sense of play. In this multifaceted display of work the realness of the medium itself comes under scrutiny as traditional photography, digital appropriation and even sculptural duplication become intertwined. The very advent of symbols at the dawn of human civilization began an ongoing dialog with re-presented versions of events, emotions and ideas. This lead the father of western philosophy, Plato, eventually to question people's ability to see beyond their own illusions. While not a new notion, artists of every era inevitably engage with the inescapable bias of perspective. Contributing their own unique filters using the means available within their time, these artists perpetually expand and compound this ongoing paradox of the human attempt to communicate truth. Real is a Feeling furthers this historical conversation with its own highly subjective selection of poignant contemporary voices.