April 20 - June 3, 2012
Throughout time and across cultures, humans have looked to myth for direction, meaning, and purpose in their lives. Joseph Campbell, the famous American scholar of mythology reasoned that for myths to resonate and function in contemporary life they must evolve to reflect our current interests, concerns, and technologies. This exhibition poses an indelible question to its artists and its audience: In this era of accelerating technological advancement, can myth still elucidate our human experience and inspire meaning as dynamic as the times we live in?
From This Point Forward analyzes the modern myth through four themes, each illuminating a different current in our collective existence. The symbol as a power object is influenced by tradition yet also conspicuously reflective of our social and capital culture. Nature appears as a hybrid space inflecting perceptions of the pristine with details of an anti-pastoral. New communities emerge in hyperspace through technological verisimilitudes. Trails are forged for future generations, contextualizing the past and present, to help guide them through the stages of life.
The works on display put forth both original and established signs and symbols to suggest the primitive, the traditional, the electronic, the fantastical and even the apocryphal.
Artists have the unique ability to mine our collective unconscious and bring to light emotional, psychological, and environmental undercurrents yet to be articulated. From This Point Forward solicits the artist as myth-maker - coming of age in a time wanting for powerful cultural myths - to interpret and visually communicate their personal and communal experiences.
We are living in a global state of friction and uncertainty - from our deteriorating environment to expanding social unrest. Taken as a whole, now more than ever, we seek the unfettered clarity and stability that myths can provide.
Utilizing myth as both an instrument and an influence, the artists in this show become the vanguard, engaging in a fundamentally communal search to understand the world, our place in it, and what the future may hold.
Curated by Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas, Printmaking MFA, 2013 Genevieve Lowe, Printmaking MFA, 2013
