Metallic Witness — How a Community Named a Work of Art

Art Practice and Philosophy

6 Dec

Written By Ralph Kerle

Metallic Witness - Named by Shane Smedley, Melbourne. Australia

Every artwork begins with an intention, but I’m reminded again and again that its life begins when it enters the eyes — and imagination — of others.

Over the past month, I invited my Art Journal subscribers into something I’ve never done before: a genuine co-creation. A new artwork of mine, previously untitled, was placed before you all with a simple question:

What should this work be called?

Thirty-one people responded. And what unfolded was one of a most fascinating exercises in understanding perception, naming, and the beholder’s role in my practice.

The Clear Winner: Metallic Witness

From very early on, one title started to rise above the rest: Metallic Witness, submitted by one of my longtime collectors, Shane Smedley from Melbourne.

Shane’s title earned 19 votes — miles ahead of the next closest options (Espresso Chemistry and Liquid Resonance), both with two each. Even my personal favourite, Alchronea, only received one.

What was remarkable is that even when I completely changed the order of the options in subsequent MailChimp emailings — moving Metallic Witness from #3 in the first mailing to #18 in the second — the voting pattern did not budge. It remained the dominant choice throughout.

That told me something. People weren’t simply scanning a list — they were responding to a narrative.

And that narrative came from Shane’s beautifully articulated explanation of why Metallic Witness emerged for him.

Why the Title Resonated With Me

As soon as I read Shane’s response, I understood why it struck such a universal chord — and why it aligned so closely with my own thinking as the beholder of my own work.

Matisse famously said:
“The artist never really sees his work.”
I feel this every day.

Shane turned the image 180 degrees and saw something I had not consciously articulated but fully recognised once he put words to it — a silent, metallic being standing at the edge of a void, watching, witnessing, absorbing the scream of empty space.

His words captured the tension, stillness, and otherworldly presence I felt but had not yet named.

Here is his full response:

Why did you choose the title “Metallic Witness”?

I turned the image 180 degrees. The image showed me a metallic being. A being witnessing the silence. The silence of space. The scream of the void. Filled with a single planet. An expressionless being. It witnesses the scream of the void. It doesn’t care. It only witnesses. The cold hard metal. The steel of the witness.

What feeling, story, or idea does the work evoke?

Through the interplay of light, reflection, and form, Metallic Witness explores the tension between presence and absence.
A reflective surface transforms into an anthropomorphic figure — a silent observer in space.
Why is there an observer here? What is the bigger purpose? The silence. The scream. Cold. Hard. Dark. Devoid of light. The very thing that defines photography.
The emptiness. The witness. The metal. The question.
Organic forms yet metal. The fluidity of metal. Metal is fluid at temperature. In this cold place, it is solid yet fluid.
A juxtaposition of cold and hard with something wet and fluid, yet not.
It is devoid. The blackness of velvet. The silence within a scream. The futile scream without oxygen.
Yet no oxygen is needed for this being. It is a witness. A being with a purpose that one can only consider the past, the future, the intention. The question.
The work invites contemplation of perception, isolation, and the blurred boundary between the mechanical and the organic.

What struck me most was his framing of the work not as an object, but as a presence — something alive.

That insight is at the heart of my practice.

My Personal Favourite: Alchronea

Though not the winning title, I want to honour another extraordinary contribution — Alchronea, submitted by smartenstyn@gmail.com. Unfortunately, I have no record of this contributor’s name.

This reflection captured the work through the lens of alchemy — transformation, heat, time, and ancient craft. It moved me deeply:

Why Alchronea?

I was taken to an ancient place… observing a pot or forge heated to alchemize and transform substances.
The image has the real sense of alchemy — heating, cooling, vapours, evaporation.
It evokes the past and the present, and ideas of future possibilities forged from ancient wisdom.

And further:

This piece represents a moment of stillness in time — yet the vertical and horizontal lines move energetically between the past and future.
They evoke vapours emitted during the alchemic process and the electromagnetic connection between ancient practices and unknown future technologies.
Your transformative process of changing the background… feels like the very definition of alchemy.

These words reaffirmed something powerful for me:
The act of naming is itself a creative process — a form of beholding.

What This Experiment Taught Me

This naming experiment revealed more than just a title.

It confirmed my belief, inspired by Dr. Eric Kandel’s notion of unconscious inference, that viewers bring their own histories, emotions, and subconscious associations to my work — often seeing what I cannot.

And that is the true beauty of this art form.

From today forward, this artwork carries its new name: