NADA Miami 2021

Comprised of a series of paintings and sculptures, When Our Pineal Glands were Big is a body of work that consolidates a narrative that Duncan has been creating through visual and textual works over the past 3 years. The ongoing project proposes a synthetic theory of the transfer of technology from metaphysical to physical through the shrinkage of the pineal gland over the evolution of mankind.
In ancient times, human beings had much larger pineal glands as wild animals continue to exhibit. Due to the significantly larger size of our brains in proportion to our body we were able to not only to tap into natural tides and “Universal connection and communication” but also deeper telepathic understanding of each other. Through the various toils of human evolutions and the change in diet and living conditions, Mankind, lost significant connection to the earth through the shrinkage of the gland over the eons.
In this earlier state, humans were able to see beyond the physical realms of the world. They were able to look into another reality, its mathematical construction, or what we can call its biological structure. The stuff you see under a microscope. The geometry of things can be seen today under states of hallucination where Dimethyltryptamine increases the activity in the pineal gland for example. LSD, psilocybin, DMT and other such substances activate the pineal gland.
These painting are studies of eternal notions of value, psychological, mathematical, physical and metaphysical ideas of the creation of the world. One may say they are microscopic views of much larger elements or they are just architecture holding psychological values. The representation of connectivity gives birth to a line of mythological human structure crossing over to stories of gods and nature of a once harmonious world.