Rafael Bernal - Contemporary Artist 

My practice is based on a philosophical and sensual interrogation of my experience and perception. I focus on achieving an experience of reality that is non-conceptual, aesthetic, and as objective as possible. I methodically train myself to transcend cultural biases so that I may discover the intrinsic meaning that exists outside the egoic structures of the mind and which permeates the ground of all being - to find meaning beyond meaning, meta-meaning. As a photographer I rely on an active involvement with the world around me, seeking spontaneity and immediacy, that elusive and mindful state of flow. I use intuition, as a form of immediate cognition, to go beyond reason to that place where thought comes to an end, a place where one can momentarily apprehend ontological truth and ecstatic beauty. I afterwards return to reason to further analyse and understand my experiences. I intend for my art to act as an experiential activator, awakening the viewer to simply perceive the cruel radiance of what is. Seeking to capture the liminality of the everyday, those moments that are forever suspended between a “before” and “after” - elliptical, mystical, and infinite. I strive to create windows into the sublime, maps to nowhere.