KEN DUNKLEY

Ken Dunkley's reputation as a holographic artist has been assured by a single hologram. Finished in 1973, Thoughts remains a classic historic piece -- his only known and, exhibited work. Objectively Dunkley presents us with a sand-sculpted portrait with sand-sculpted interference fringes issuing from the head. In a curve stretching into the background are holographic permutations potentially leading to infinity, a three-dimensional construction of the flow of our thoughts. Dunkley suggests that an arbitrary subset of life can represent the whole. Each hologram within a hologram is a discrete level, evolutionary in nature -- experientially we are not always able to discern the process leading from one to the next.

For Dunkley this piece is a model for consciousness. Each stage in our development, each change in our awareness incorporates new-elements while yet encompassing the previous levels. When asked what 1 + 1 is equal to, one might give a variety of answers (2 or 444-442 or 14 etc.). Each response is correct; they are all interchangeable and can be reduced. to the same thing. Each represents a change in our awareness, equal to the previous one-yet somehow different. Beyond this, Dunkley sees all forms of consciousness as an interlocking network. Just as we depend on the biochain physically, we are also interconnected with the consciousnesses of other entities. We cannot exist independently. Dunkley asks us to make this philosophical leap with him into the holographic space.

In Thoughts each separate space exists inside another - - a situation analogous to the perception of a shared consciousness. Dunkley works only in laser transmission holography, manipulating the monochrome volume without reducing it to a localized, flat, white light distillation. In this way, he is free of many constraints and compromises with the medium. It is easy to intersect 180° of our vision with a laser-viewable hologram. Such holograms literally commandeer our attention ("coupling with our minds" as Dunkley calls it). The challenge comes in shaping that section of space with a vision that has a distinct focus and the power to move us to profound insights about the nature of our existence. Dunkley envisions filling a room with volumes of holograms. Each would relate to the others and by encompassing the viewer would totally subvert his-reality, replacing it with a continuous holographic one. What then would be the distinction between them?

Copyright April 1983... Marcia Merryman-Means