Doors of Perception
NIGEL BANKS, 2024
Let’s start with William Blake, because he’s partly to blame. “If the doors of perception were cleansed,” he said, “everything would appear as it is – infinite.” Sounds poetic. But let’s be honest: none of us really knows what to do with infinity.
The truth is simpler and stranger: we all arrive with a solid gold bowl and a mountain of possibility. Every moment after that, the mountains and skies of Aotearoa watch us thread our way through the cosmic karaoke. And for each of us they can already see where this is likely heading.
DOORS OF PERCEPTION – HEAVEN
Mitre Peak bears quiet witness to your consistently wise decisions. The warm waters of your choices hang together like a rope suspended above a Mount Cook Daisy – a delicate splash of warm, soft hope in a cold, stony world.
You walk steadily toward Heaven, led by empathy, shaped by compassion. Your waters are clarified intention: calm, smooth, kind. They kiss the land, seep into roots, whisper to stones, and leave everything nourished, cleansed, and full of promise.
You’re tuned to a frequency you’re grateful to inhabit. You’re not looking at the world – you’re inside it, and it’s inside you. And you’re both glad you came.
You’re living Truth – the kind you can dance to.
DOORS OF PERCEPTION – HELL
Same bowl. Different mood. Less serenity, more seismic.
Here, Ruapehu looms–sacred, smouldering, unblinking. Your gold bowl still gleams, but the waters run through volcanic rock and emerge acidic. The path you’re on isn’t evil. But when intention is bent by hunger, fear, or the siren song of ego, the result is the same: a slide into Hell, one off-key chorus at a time.
This landscape has seen things. You thought the destination was golden – but it turned out to be molten, jagged, burning. And by the time you realise it’s just feedback, the karaoke’s over and the dancing’s done.
ONE KARAOKE – TWO SONGS
Both landscapes rise sacred from the bones of New Zealand. One nourishes. One incinerates. One leads to Heaven, the other to Hell.
What changed?
Only a thousand thousand thousand choices.
When you leave behind the pictures and back into your life, which door are you choosing?
Oil, alkyd and polyurethane over linen on 4 mm ACM sheet.
Find installation info here.
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See second, annotated photograph of the picture.
1 - Doors of Perception: The places where countless small choices gather, opening the way toward either Heaven or Hell. Each decision shapes the direction, whether we notice or not.
2 - OK Girl: Full of curiosity, courage, and the openness to shape her future, OK Girl stands outside time, always engaged with life’s unfolding. In the moment captured here, she arrives on earth carrying the quiet potential of a life yet to be lived.
3 - Southern Cross: A tool for sound navigation, gifted by the cosmos. Its persistent quiet presence reminds us that, even in darkness, true direction remains for those who choose to seek it.
4 - Matariki: In this painting, the nine shimmering stars of Matariki hang in the pre-dawn sky. Visible for only five months of the year, their silent guidance towards a better path may sometimes be missed.
5 - Mitre Peak: Mitre Peak embodies calm strength and presence, inviting measured decisions rooted in stillness.
6 - Ruapehu: Ruapehu begins as silent witness to choices to be made on the plains below but its snow-clad surface masks hidden fires. The gradual accumulation of poor choices is a path to hell.
7 - Rope: A symbol of countless small choices, woven together through time. Each strand contributes to a pattern of behaviour that inexorably shapes inevitable outcomes.
8 - Heaven / Bouba / Mount Cook Daisy: A natural outcome of a life shaped by sound choices and empathy. Its quiet presence stands in clear contrast to the consequences of missteps and descent.
9 - Hell / Kiki / Eruption: A harsh, jagged endpoint shaped by careless choices and fractured empathy. Its violent form and warning colours stand as the stark opposite of the calm found through wise living.