Quantum 87 — Justin Auld, 2025, oil on board, 34" x 24"

In Quantum Works Justin Auld explores the phenomenon of the unlimited potentiality inherent in the quantum environment. There, observation is required to trigger the collapse model where matter is created. Using oil paintings, drawings and video he explores the moment when the eyes and the brain communicate to create an image. By providing a slightly unexpected approach to perspective in each media the viewer is left with the responsibility to consider what they are seeing and why.

Using cloud forms as a departure point for the paintings triggers the brain’s inherent condition of pareidolia to find faces and imagery within randomized forms. Photo reference is used as a starting point to inform the painting’s composition, then brush work is used to subtly create  marks that suggest faces and forms that sit on the line between intention and interpretation.

Multiple media are used in the drawings to first create a bed of marks and clashing forms. He then waits for a potential figure or narrative to present itself  within the field of potential interpretations. The final pieces represent a single caught hallucination that was found within the piece.

Using a shift of time and editing the clips videos open the viewer to a new way of considering clouds not as a backdrop but as an active engaging part of what your consciousness creates.

The overlapping aspects of quantum physics and eastern philosophy have always been a touchstone to Auld’s work and life. Both subjects have been extensively explored by the artist and influence these works by approaching matter and reality through the lens of a non-fixed state, the illusion of which only exists within the mind as a coping device.