Philipp Hölke

Art

Paradox of the Mind

A white brain on red, looped by its own black wire — the mind using itself to understand itself, and a small aside that knows how circular that is.

A magenta-to-crimson field on white paper with a white outlined brain in the lower half, yellow inner folds, and a black line looping around it with arrows; above, thick lettering reads THE MIND USES ITSELF TO UNDERSTAND ITSELF, with a smaller aside, would you look at that.

A brain drawn as a single white contour, its folds picked out in yellow, sits in the lower half of a red field. A black line leaves it, travels the long way round the sheet, and comes back in — a closed circuit with the organ as both source and destination. The sentence above it is the diagram in words.

The mind uses itself to understand itself.

The aside in brackets — would you look at that — is the only break in the loop, a note from the same mind catching itself at the trick. The paradox is not solved; it is drawn, then labelled, then shrugged at.