Because I often see a person or animal who strikes me as odd, or beautiful, or somehow repugnant, I often try to imagine their experience of being a self. I realised this was unusual when I asked other people what they thought some other person or animal’s experience of the world was like. I was usually met with blank looks. I do know several people who also do it though. I try to keep those people as friends wherever possible. I try to understand people through stepping into a simulation of their world, based on the imperfect data I can assemble from their posture, shape and movement. I do it with animals too: I imagine the feeling of fascination through the nose of a dog or the arms of an octopus. I am convinced this is a richer way to experience my brief existence; instead of my own myopic view I can, however imperfectly, see the world through their eyes and feel gravity in someone else’s skin.

It seems like this is about feeling, but it’s about systems, consciousness and the interplay of those that makes your world so different from mine, and both of us so much the same.

Kim Mobey is a visual artist with thirty years of professional practice, working in painting, sculpture, mixed media and printmaking. Her work is primarily portraiture, and strongly hypersurrealist. She is self-taught and has exhibited internationally since 2003, with work in collections on all continents. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, she relocated to Montevideo, Uruguay in 2025 and is currently establishing a new studio practice there. This site contains her portfolio, process writing, and essays on art practice and the art world.