The Labyrinth Wall: From Mythology to Reality

December 14, 2008 - February 7, 2009

Opening Sunday, December 14, 3-9 PM

 

EXHIBITION // CURATORS // ARTISTS // MANIFESTO // MAP

 

 

 

Exit Art will be re-configured into a maze constructed of fifty, 8 x 8 foot panels. Each artist will be given one wall on which to respond to the metaphor of the labyrinth and offer instructions on how to escape the issues we are confronted with. The labyrinth serves as a metaphor for the vexing problems that America, under a hopeful new presidential administration, must now navigate.

 

In Greek mythology, the labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half-man, half-bull. Designed for King Minos of Crete by Daedalus, the labyrinth was so serpentine and difficult to negotiate that Daedalus himself could barely find his way out. Today, America seems to have found itself at the center of a metaphorical labyrinth. We’ve become so deeply wound into an economic and political maze that our situation seems impossible to escape.

 

This exhibition also calls attention to the wall as a representation of a political barrier, used for either fortification or for segregation (such as the Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China or the many walls we are building on our Mexican border), or as a form of communication (such as the activities of Chinese Democracy activists on what became known as the ‘Democracy Wall’).

 

Responding to these metaphors in 2-dimensional media – such as painting, collage, photography, drawing, and stencil – the artists in this exhibition attempt to navigate the complicated issues threatening the way of life in the United States of America.

 

The process of artists creating the walls of the Labyrinth was open to the public from Tuesday, December 9 to Saturday, December 13.

 

Curated by Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo. Concept/Design by Papo Colo.

ARTISTS

 

Josh Abram Howard; John Ahearn; Madeleine Arthurs and P.S. 274; Francisca Benitez; Liz Brown; Luis Camnitzer; Russell Christian; Tyler Coburn; Papo Colo; Ernest Concepcion; Anton van Dalen; Robert Dandarov; Coleen Fitzgibbon; Iliana Emilia Garcia; Mike Estabrook; Teo Freytes; John Fekner and Don Leicht; Juana Gallo; Scherezade Garcia; Rico Gatson; Guerra de la Paz; Peter Hildebrand; Vandana Jain and Doris Caciolo; Charles Juhasz-Alvarado; Jayson Keeling; Fawad Khan; Saeri Kiritani and Dario Solman; Matthew Kirk; Lucretia Knapp and Lynne Yamamoto; Christopher Knowles; Charles Koegel; Peter Kuper; Ligorano / Reese; Joan Linder; Miguel Luciano; Yucef Merhi; Bryan Mesenbourg; Marcus Morales; Irvin Morazan; Rune Olsen; Tom Otterness; Kevin Pyle; Carlo Quispe; Beau Rhee; Rudy Royval; David Sandlin; Jacolby Satterwhite; Seher Shah; Dan Tague; Panayiotis Terzis; Seth Tobocman; World War 3; Heeseop Yoon; Daniel Zeller; François Ziliff

MANIFESTO

 

Chaos is the payback…for arrogance.

Glory is never there…because it is in other places.

So where are we going, with this disappearing wonder,

condescending into a moment of confusion?

What is this state that invented us,

with the collective solitude of patriotism?

What are nations if not walls that become a labyrinth?

-- Papo Colo, 2008

 

The world economy is in trouble and we have to resolve this

situation from the Americas point of view, collectively and

soon. Nations are dying, continents will be unified, the banker’s

culture will refine its repression and the marginal will grow into

an explosion. And there we are with more time to worry about vanity,

investment and decoration.

-- Juana Gallo, 2008, ‘Loose Thoughts’

MAP