Should we look at the world trough Advaita, a non-dual lens, we realise that grasping reality means grasping ourselves.
This idea would put an equality sign between the process of perception and beingness.
In a way, what this would also mean is that the whole process of experience in this reality could be summarised in the writings that once stood written in stone on the temple of Delphi at the entrance, among the maxims - Know thyself.
The inherent feeling that something is not fully there, is missing. An openness, a curiosity.
Making things visible- trough a ritualistic process of sorts in creating art - as a way to broaden and shed light of understanding on a point in perspective.
Us and all as one a liberating notion - not to say all is reality as 5 aggregates have different levels. The spiritual seems to be in all and in non of them.
From a perspective of making art - the spiritual realm, the realm of one self - and oneness with the divine, has been a topic and and underlining motivation for creation since creation was made and inartistically part of human experience.
Take a look at this painting - it was created between 13,000 to 9,000 years ago. It is a part of a cave painting found in Patagonia. The dominant topic or purpose, if any there was, we can only assume and take our guesses on. However, knowing what we know about these societies, and judging on the placement of the work and the significance of these caves - we can assume they were a map of a society in a time, a spiritual pattern of presence within a group of people.
Work such as these cave paintings spark a deep feeling of inner questioning, stemming from the navel, the deep within. It shows a unified presence, human presence marking stone , stemming out of it in unity. These works seem to be infused with an urge that stems from a force, from a place outside as well as from a force within, integrated and seemingly separate but bound in the core.
Other than their human interactions, as seen in the wall painting above, these societies also wanted to represent things of value to them - such as where the animals are, how the people immigrated, and what life looks like.
Making these works was a laborious process, planned out and highly important to the comunity.
However, not always do these painting come with a clear, representational value.
Moving on from the early stages of creation, and as spirituality mixed with organised religion, we start to see representations of a divine force, that at its instigation was not found in a a group but rather in an individual. A person or person serves as a link with the divine, the spiritual - be them, pharaohs, rulers, keepers of temples.
To illustrate this - take a look at these paintings found in North America, in the Santa Barbara aria. They are made by Chumash people, that lived in the aria for 14,000 years.
No one can be sure why these paintings were made, or how come we see a mixture of both representational and non-representational art, but the leading thought is that these works were made by tribe shamans in ritual settings of sorts. Shamans were the herb knowers (healers) and spiritual leaders in the community, called by the community to take their position. Their practice was based on direct interaction between them and the supernatural (sacred realm, spirits).
Interestingly, there are also speculations that these non-representational images are in affect representational - of the realm of the spirit, in which the shamans are with one foot.
The caves in this aria are filled with these symbolic images, consisting of geometric repetitive patterns. We can only assume by the energy of these pictograms, they were a significant part of the life for those people, as they are embedded in unity with the more representational elements of their life.