I was in Rome recently and it was 43 degrees with the asphalt melting underfoot, so I went to my favourite (airconditioned) gallery – The Borghese – to hang out with Bernini’s Apollo & Daphne marble sculpture.
Still not wanting to deal with the heat, I walked across the park to the La Galleria Nazionale – The Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. I found myself in this extraordinary gallery virtually on my own. It seems that everyone wants only traditional art when in Rome.
When I was at La Galleria Nazionale, I realised that we have a certain way of seeing art, or more specifically art is presented to us in a conventional way. I have never questioned that.
Seeing in a different way
Take for example marble sculptures. They are on a plinth so you look up at them. They are facing you, so often you can’t see the back or the whole work. There is a rope around them so you can’t get too close.
At La Galleria Nazionale, they mix old with new and I walked into a room with a stunning Dante sculpture of Diana. It was facing the wall, and wasn’t on a plinth or with a rope around it. It was extraordinary. I had a completely different experience with it.
It kind of blew my mind actually.
Unhooking from convention
It made me think about convention or specifically what would happen if we if we started to see objects, problems, things in our lives in different ways.
What would change if we unhooked ourselves from convention? What we think is…right, wrong, good, bad, predetermined, front, back…or “it’s just the way we do things”.
Often we only see what we want to see: visions that match our fixed beliefs and perspectives. I believe that anything that is defined in a limited way is open to transformation. When we lift that limitation, we have the opportunity to flourish in ways we never even imagined.
Opening yourself to change
When we dream a different reality, all its many dimensions flourish in a way so far removed from convention. We open the space toward what can be and will be more vibrant worlds to come.
So what in your life or business would benefit from flipping from front to back, or questioning the conventional approach? What would happen if you saw your life in different ways?
It doesn’t mean anything has to change. But my gosh…what if it did and it brought new wonderful experiences you never even dreamed of.
Tweetable: What would change if we unhooked ourselves from convention? @CatrionaPollard bit.ly/2x37Bmg