Ivory Tower
FJORD is pleased to announce our ninth group show "Ivory Tower," curated by Kaitlynd O'Doherty and Sarah Pater.
While humans by nature crave rationality and consistency as a way to feel safe and at ease, it is through the experience of dissonance that we begin to analyze, dissect, and scrutinize the components of our existence. This exhibition explores this notion as it applies to visual art.
Confining oneself to an ivory tower is antithetical to experiencing the tense, uneasy realities of life. Indeed, it is easier to live in the luminous and false realm of comfort than to face "the queer, rather sinister and...quite incomprehensible monster [of reality], by which, when we venture out of our ivory towers, we are instantly swallowed" (Aldous Huxley). The works included employ various means of establishing uneasiness - humor, vulgarity, vacancy, dreaminess, contradiction, anxiety, and ambiguity among them. By confronting the audience with images or objects that incite discomfort, this show seeks to establish a mental and emotional tension - a “cerebral pistol shot” - that motivates viewers to grapple with what is being presented to them, what it means in the given context, and why it elicits a particular reaction.
While humans by nature crave rationality and consistency as a way to feel safe and at ease, it is through the experience of dissonance that we begin to analyze, dissect, and scrutinize the components of our existence. This exhibition explores this notion as it applies to visual art.
Confining oneself to an ivory tower is antithetical to experiencing the tense, uneasy realities of life. Indeed, it is easier to live in the luminous and false realm of comfort than to face "the queer, rather sinister and...quite incomprehensible monster [of reality], by which, when we venture out of our ivory towers, we are instantly swallowed" (Aldous Huxley). The works included employ various means of establishing uneasiness - humor, vulgarity, vacancy, dreaminess, contradiction, anxiety, and ambiguity among them. By confronting the audience with images or objects that incite discomfort, this show seeks to establish a mental and emotional tension - a “cerebral pistol shot” - that motivates viewers to grapple with what is being presented to them, what it means in the given context, and why it elicits a particular reaction.