IN THE ZONE

May 22 - June 23, 2013

Station Independent Projects, 164 Suffolk St, New York

featuring Jenny Carpenter, Carrie Elston, Marcella Hackbardt, Sandy Litchfield, Karen Marston, Rachelle Mozman, Julie Schenkelberg, Mary Ann Strandell
 This exhibition explores the various emotional territories that have become a popular way of expressing who we are, and how we live, at any given moment. Zones, which began to be used in the mainstream press, became popular after WWII (“Occupation Zones”) and the Korean War (Demilitarized Zone”) when it became necessary to demarcate areas along a boundary that were either shared by many groups or were summarily off-limits to any one group. They existed previously in areas of study such as Geography and Sports. This particular version refers to an athlete who is so immersed in the moment, that like an actor he ceases to be a person and becomes a cog in system of ultimate purpose.

Being “in the moment” is a quality of experience common to artists; beyond mere dedication to craft or idiosyncratic vision, it becomes necessary to project our immersion in subject matter, background context, and formal intentions so that the spectator can share in our degree of portent equally. The artwork will infect them, creating a state of contingency between its own qualities an aspect of their own experience. They may walk away bemused or challenged, but in the end they will have had their own moment; they will have been transported to a new zone. The strongest art does this well.