Thoughts…
“Bold is the mind that dares to think, and brave is the body that dares to share its thoughts.”
- Lebohang Molotsi
Context Matters: The frame shapes the painting?
June ‘26
We often believe that we exist within a vacuum, and in some instances, this may be the case; however, in other instances, this may be quite the opposite.
We can take a word, an object, or a piece of work, and see what realities bring it to life - diving into the depths of relativism. This is the realm of taken-for-granted truths – offering a multitude of lenses that capture unique perspectives fashioned by identity, experience, and history. The grey area where nuances are the defining factors of reality, meaning being dependent on its viewpoint.
However, we can take these very same words, objects, or pieces of work, and see how they remain solid and unmoved in any reality - exploring the domains of realism. This is the realm of common sense. It offers a fixed comfortability where the world feels definitive and stable – a stable sense of being that can be computed without confusion. It’s either black or white; there are no in-betweens, ifs, ands, or maybes. Everything is as it appears, rooted in the facts of its reality.
Fact or truth?
What’s real?
What’s not real?
An undecidability that traps our thoughts and actions. But why should it? Instead, open your mind. Choose not the route that seeks to show a power imbalance between the two, but rather deepen your understanding of what is.
Two truths can exist.
Ink is ink, no matter whose hands it’s in, that won’t change. However, put that ink in a pen, a printer, or a tattoo machine, and suddenly operationalism creates context and meaning – where the function of this ink creates a reducible reality. Fact and truth coincide, feeding into each other – producing a paradoxical harmony of knowledge.