June 7 – July 21
Reception: Friday, June 7, 5-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, July 6, 2pm
Location: Abel Contemporary Gallery, 524 East Main St, Stoughton, WI
The now defunct theory of extramission once supposed that sight was made possible by the emission of beams of elemental fire onto an object. An inversion of the contemporary understanding of vision—referred to as intromission—the theory held that a being’s gaze, inanimate or living, impacted the physical world. Though this theory was replaced during the early days of the Enlightenment, extramission’s legacy is clear in our present image-driven cultural moment. The works in this exhibition are reflections on how witnessing the bodies of the neglected, the oppressed, and the punished influences attitudes and catalyzes restorative action. Further, the bodies themselves bear witness and serve as illuminations into the darkness of humanity’s collective conscience. While the light they shine contains an implicating force both to those complicit during these events and to each of us in our present context, that same light also demonstrates the unique power afforded to those in the throes of extreme adversity. The bodies depicted in this exhibition serve as testimonies to the belief found in the Abrahamic faiths: there is a proximity to truth afforded to those with profound experience of suffering, loss, and poverty of spirit. This body of work is meant to reflect on America’s history of racially motivated mob violence experienced largely—but not exclusively—by Black Americans and how these moments of violence brought to light the true state of race relations to the uninitiated, and thereby catalyzed societal change in the years leading to the civil-rights movement.