In Things Appear Larger, I shift the space of the image from one defined by physical scale to one defined by mood and emotion. The scale of the figures identifies the sexual tension shown in the image.
In painting, drawing or digital collage, an artist can build any space at any scale and can use any standard to set that scale. Western art has mostly used one standard: the way the eye sees. Objects farther away appear smaller, which produces linear perspective. They also appear less distinct, which produces atmospheric perspective.
That standard is justified, and it dominates Western art. It is not the only way to define space.
Here, the room keeps its traditional perspective. The figures do not. What I am doing with this collage is intentionally shifting scale to step away from the physical familiarity of space and focus on the emotional intensity of a moment, which includes a sexual tension.
Precedents
Writers in art history, philosophy, geography and anthropology have described space in these terms.
Erwin Panofsky treats linear perspective as a cultural convention, not a neutral record of sight.
Otto Friedrich Bollnow describes "attuned space," meaning space shaped by mood.
Gaston Bachelard describes rooms by intimacy and memory instead of measurement.
Yi-Fu Tuan describes how space becomes place through experience and attachment.
Edward T. Hall measures the distance between people by their relationship: intimate, personal, social or public.
Together, they show that space can be defined by how it is experienced, not only by how it is measured. Emotional scale applies that idea to the image.
The domestic interior is the most traditional space in Western painting. It is also the space where gay life was expected to stay out of sight. The figures in this room are sized by what is happening between them.
The title comes from the warning printed on a car's side mirror. In this collage, things appear larger because they are.
See for yourself.
— Behan
Sources
Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form (1927; English translation 1991).
Otto Friedrich Bollnow, Human Space (1963; English translation 2011).
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (1958; English translation 1964).
Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (1977).
Edward T. Hall, The Hidden Dimension (1966).