When we look at obiects or buildings that seem to be at peace within
themselves, our perception becomes calm and dulled.The objects we
perceive have no message for us;they are simply there. Our perceptive
faculties grow quiet,unpre]udiced,and unacquisitive.They reach beyond
Signs and SYmbOlS; they are open, empty. lt is as if we could see some-
thing on which we cannot focus our consciousness. Here, in this per-
Ceptual vacuum,a memory may surface,a memory that seems to issue
from the depths of time. Now, our observation ofthe object embraces
a presentiment of the world in all its wholeness because there is noth-
ing that cannot be understood.
There is a power in the ordinary things of everyday life, as Edward
Hopper’s paintings seem to say. We only have to look at them long
enough to see it.