"A Warlike People: Victims or Perpetrators?"

A group show of art that examines issues of violence in our daily lives.

Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) October 21, 2004 -- Daily life in the United States has become a silent negotiation with violence. The threat of terrorism has come to mean a heightened necessity for increased national and personal security – a sense of security that leaves behind a residue of suspicion, paranoia and anxiety. As borders have come to be reinforced and redefined internationally, the United States pursues its own war against terrorism absorbing the aftershocks at a local level both in the nation’s cities and towns. The threat of terrorism in the United States has become an acceptable way of life since 9/11 as well as a media invasion of gory, violent images which ten years ago would not have been permissibly viewed by the general public.

Open February 3 through March 24, 2005, the group show “A Warlike People:Victims or Perpetrators” will be on exhibit at the Monorchid Gallery in downtown Phoenix and sponsored by Shade Projects, a non-profit organization. Housed in one of the cities most innovative gallery spaces, the works of fifteen to twenty local Phoenix and national artists will be brought together to examine these issues and to inspire further discussion. By bringing together artists from larger and smaller cities patterns are clarified as to how our lives are becoming predominantly contextualized by more rules and red alerts.

Victims or Perpetrators?
New invisible lines are being drawn everyday conceptually and physically as to what is correct and appropriate behavior and thinking in our neighborhoods, schools and even private home life. These lines are re-emphasized largely by the media and local government however they remain steadfast because citizens are also compelled to maintain them. Over a short period of time, the public has re-adjusted its collective personality coming to passively accept shocking images fed by the American media of death, torture, beheadings and other unusual cruelties. In turn, our private and local life has become a steady diet of school shootings, reality shows, terrorist threats, human spectacle and the list goes on. Clearly something has changed and it has manifested itself in a new and thriving mentality.

The question then is who are we, the spectator and citizen, who can change the television channel from the news to the latest sitcom, ignore the newspaper’s front page or read another more entertaining bestseller? How do we look against the backdrop of the culture of international violence in our living rooms?

Are we the victims of the violence as it is imposed upon us by terrorists and the media alike or do we perpetuate our fears by calmly accepting new standards of daily living? Are we passively accepting the need for less civil liberties or do we actually create more need for laws and less personal privacy? Are we the victims or the perpetrators of this new atmosphere in which we live?

The job of art and of the artist is to reflect the world in which they are living. Art cuts through the lies- even if it is a piece of propaganda – it can tell a revealing story about the time and place from which it came. The artists in this show have sensed the subtle changes in American society and have interpreted it sometimes as a catharsis, sometimes to unveil an illusion but always as a view to our own tendencies as citizens of this society.

The works of twenty-two contemporary international, national and local artists are joined to create a group show of over thirty-five works that range in mediums from ceramics to video to oil paintings.
   
Participating artists are as follows:
Joan Baron, Phoenix, Arizona
Colin Chillag & Dave Kwan, Phoenix, Arizona
Kristin Calabrese, Los Angeles, California
Enrique Chagoya, Segura Publishing, Mesa, Arizona:George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
Don Colley, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
Joan Dobkin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Seth Edenbaum, New York, NY
Tom Ellis, Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Jason Falchook, Fusebox Gallery, Washington, DC
Jon Haddock, Phoenix, Arizona
Robert Hickman, New York, NY
Fawad Khan, New York, NY
Peter Kuper, New York, NY
Alfredo Martinez, The Proposition, New York, NY
Ntopia International Art Group
Donald Odili Odita, Florence Lynch Gallery, New York, NY
Jonathan Parsons, Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Stefanie Schneider, Susanne Vielmetter Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Eddo Stern, Los Angeles, California
Think Again, Los Angeles, California
Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Bucharest, Romania
Laura Watt, New York, NY
Bernard Williams, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, NY
Patrick Wilson, Susanne Vielmetter Gallery, Los Angeles, California

The Venue
Shade Projects is a non-profit 501 (c ) (3) organization devoted to the local arts community of Phoenix, Arizona. Through their arts and culture magazine “Shade” which recognizes local and national art, film and music events as well as monthly gallery openings at the Monorchid Gallery in downtown Phoenix, they have a created a crucial dialogue for artists and critics alike. The Monorchid Gallery is an interdisciplinary workspace for the arts in downtown Phoenix. Fortunate to have the use of its raw 60 by 20 foot long gallery space, the show promises to be powerful in its delivery because it is able to properly exhibit such a wide range of artistic media from video installations to sculptures and paintings.

For additional information, please contact:
Lara Taubman
602-309-1728
aral72@mac.com

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