 | ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
Ricky Allman - Chris Barnard - Robert Billings - MB. Boissonnault Jessalyn Haggenjos - Sean Higgins - Machine Histories - Peter Lograsso - Eve Wood Shut Up and Keep Swimming I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day, And men forgot their passions in the dread Of this their desolation; and all hearts Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light. - From “Darkness” by Lord Byron (1788-1824) Barack Obama is president, the stock market is rebounding as a result of a genius bailout plan that didn’t involve taxpayers money, jobs are on the rise, socialized healthcare is a reality - wait did I just see a flying pig (with pink lipstick) outside my window? The sobering reality is that even with our most historic presidential inauguration imminent, the world is still in a very dark place. We are in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis and a deepening recession here in the US. Wars continue and there is social unrest on a global scale. Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean there is a little boy looking frightened. “Mummy” he says, “I don’t want to go to France”. She looks at her boy sternly and replies “Shut up and keep swimming”. All the artists in Shut Up and Keep Swimming grapple with the psychological fallout from the effects of a dystopian society. Human misery, violence, oppression, poverty, disease, pollution and an impending sense of doom - all things that were once relegated to the pages of some apocalyptic, science fiction novel are now part of our daily world reality. Furthermore, there appears be a collective desire towards re-sensitization to the consequences of our actions in a culture which readily points the finger elsewhere. We are all too used to the distance provided by mass media as a way to filter what we view and how we interact in society. |
{ select an artist's name below to view works } Ricky Allman Chris Barnard Robert Billings MB. Boissonnault Jessalyn Haggenjos Sean Higgins Machine Histories Peter Lograsso Eve Wood |