Page 17 - Richard Kenton Webb: Vol.5

and thought second as our way of experiencing the world and shaping
our ethical engagement. When I touch materials, I am handling stuff
which is outside of myself. I am in touch with the Stone Age. It is as
though I am touching the Infinite, that which is outside my experience
and thought, but realising I am connected with it, because I am made
of the same dirt. I have a relationship with it, a responsibility towards it.

RD The idea of relationship is really important to me. For me, words draw
us into our head. As Descartes said, ‘I think therefore I am’. Thoughts,
words, and ideas exist in my mind, and whilst I can share them and
speak them, they are something internal. Yet physical matter exists
outside of me. When I see colour, I am seeing it because a photon
of light coming from outside of myself has entered my retina. I feel
dust on my skin and it causes a sensation before a thought, the same
with smell, sound and taste. The world outside bombards my body
with proof of its existence. Josef Albers talked of the vibration that
occurs at the edge of colours, and I think the physical world outside
ourself causes a vibration in our body as we experience it. Albers
described this vibration as a proof of life, like breathing, but I think
you could take it further and say it’s a proof of the other. It testifies
to the relationship between us and the other.