An art gallery in LA explores the link between art and perception by offering weed during its exhibition

The new Nicodim Gallery exhibition, Influences, seeks to explore the link between art and psychoactive substances, both in the creation and reception of works. Cannabis is known to alter perception and stimulate creativity, which is why, for the inauguration of’Influences, the gallery invites participants to smoke cannabis before discovering the painter's work Robert Yarber.

His work Return of the Repressed, described as surreal, is a series of dark, dreamlike paintings. Yarber's work inspired the visuals for the film Las Vegas Parano, a classic. In an interview with the American Society of Cinematographers, Photographer Nicola Pecorini explains that director Gilliam handed him a book of Yarber's paintings and told him the film should look like this. Pecorini describes Yarber's style as «very hallucinatory, using all kinds of neon colors with light sources that sometimes don't make sense».

Art, cannabis and perception

The gallery has partnered with Medmen and HoneyVape to source cannabis. It set up three stands, indica, sativa and hybrid, each containing two strains specially selected to echo the paintings. Among the cannabis strains on offer were OG Kush and Blackberry Kush (indica), Tangerine Dream and Bubblegum (hybrid), Blue Dream and Jack Herer (sativa). Yaber's surrealist works are particularly conducive to the alteration of perception, as you can see from this small sample (of paint, not weed!).

The gallery's creative director, Aaron Moulton, explains that there is usually a gap between the artist's perception at the moment of creation, which usually involves psychoactive substances, and the reception of the work in the sanitized, politically correct environment of the gallery. The aim of the event is to create a bridge between artist and viewer, to give the latter access to the state of consciousness experienced by the artist in his or her creation. «We can access [the artist's] state of mind, and this leads to a more intimate understanding of the work,» explains Benjamin Lee Ritchie Handler, the gallery's director.

Yarber was present for the inauguration and explained to his audience that he has been using cannabis since he was 17, and frequently uses it to develop his creativity: «Cannabis helps me get rid of tensions that can block the visualization process. It allows me to enter the image and enter the scene. The separation of body and mind is reduced or diminished, so suddenly the body is in the mind and can explore it. There's a somatic integration with the visual too. Colors are more vivid. The relationship to space is more sensitive. It relieves me of a burden.

The gallery won't just be using cannabis to alter viewers' perceptions. It plans to incorporate other substances into the series Influences like beer or grated, a Peruvian powder traditionally used by shamans.