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Although modern cartography no longer includes the edge of Terra Incognita, the possibility of reaching the edge of the Earth is still part of our worldview. The horizon recurs constantly as an element of landscape – museum collections usually contain several versions of this motif. The line dividing earth and sky is almost invisible in its ubiquity yet it can still stir up subliminal anxiety in many of us. The brink is where we encounter the limits of our knowledge, and pause for a second or two while confronting a longing to go onwards into the unknown. Looking at the horizon is also a visual reminder of the hypnagogic state between sleeping and waking. Sometimes, in that liminal state, the sensation of falling off the edge is real enough to jerk us awake again.

As part of Persona Volare: Expo at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, I selected various works from the collection and aligned them to form an extended, obsessive, anxious facsimile of The Brink.

The Brink,
The Brink,
2009