Many people often have this big question : what is reality?

Thinking deeper about it would just make us more confused and mixed since we know in fact that human beings can never really know the nature of reality. Even sometimes there's a slight difference between reality and illusion. The appearance of various theories such as quantum reality and the like couldn't help much to understand more about reality and the universe.

The topic above would be the main theme of "The Cave", an astounding professional painting exhibition by Dr.Stout, a contemporary artist from New York City who uses the combination of universal archetypes, symbolism and collective unconscious imagery to examine the human condition and the mind-body experience.

The Cave depicts the human thought and sensory limitations. It reflects our experience that is limited by our imprisonment within a physical body. Consequently, we try to understand the nature of universe through myth, religions and scientific methodology.

In 'The Cave', Dr.Stout tries to illustrate a cave inhabited by prisoners who have been chained and held immobile since birth, and compelled to gaze only at a wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire, between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway along which people walk carrying things on their heads including figures of men and animals made of wood, stone and other materials. The prisoners watch the shadows cast by their jailers not knowing they are just shadows. There are also echoes off the wall from the noise produced from the walkway. The prisoners would take the shadows to be real things and the echoes to be real sounds, unaware they are just the reflections of reality since this is all they had ever seen or heard. They would praise as clever the prisoner who could best guess which shadow would come next as someone who understood the nature of the world and the whole of their society would depend on the shadows on the wall. The prisoners remain in "The Cave" seeking impossible enlightenment through false perceptions, shared archetypes and myths. Whereas the jailers are unable to experience the collective human condition of their prisoners.