Images and the interpretation of an image.

A memory of a teaching lesson at the University of Fine Arts is vivid in my mind. We were told 'the allegory of the cave', an allegory recorded by the philosopher Plato after overhearing an interrogation between the philosopher Socrates and one of his listeners.

It was about people who were chained to the wall of a cave. They see only the shadows on a wall of what is happening outside the cave. They experience this as the only reality because they know no other reality. The next day I was asked to tell what I thought this allegory meant. After me, another had the opportunity to share his vision. This was different from my story. It intrigued me and it just kept playing in my mind, this allegory. I later realized this was perhaps one of the most important things about art, showing that there are multiple realities, more domains that an artist can conjure up with his imagination.

Margriet van Engelen.