my friend dave von bieker is involved with a little something called Bridge Songs, and has kindly allowed me to be a part of it by curating an exhibition around its theme. here is some information about the event, and a link to the call for submissions.
Bridge Songs is an arts experience including original music, spoken word, short film, an album release and two visual art galleries. We are currently seeking submissions of visual art and short film.
The Event Space will house a large gallery that can accommodate many artists across a range of backgrounds and experience. The Event Space is in the Cycle Building on Alberta Avenue. Dates for the event are June 17-19.
The Feature Gallery, spanning from June 17th to 30th in the Nina Haggerty Stollery Gallery, will be juried, based on artistic merit but also relevance to theme and cohesion with other submissions. Only 3-4 artists will be selected due to space limitations. Both 2D and 3D work are welcome.
Artists are invited to submit to the either gallery or both. Those not selected for the Feature Gallery will have the option to have their work displayed in the Event Space instead.*************************
This year's theme: ?rogress
With every step forward and every tick of the clock we would do well to ask, “Is this progress”?
Progress is variously defined as moving, walking or going forward. It advances. It implies growth and development, an advancement to higher stages, improvement – becoming better or more complete. It can also denote a journey of state or a circuit; especially, one made by a sovereign through parts of their own dominions. Lastly, it can also refer to the advance or growth of modern, industrialized society, its technology, and its trappings (which every good post-modernist knows is patently false).
To the hopeful, we are a world merging together into a glorious global village where walls fade in the morning mist of technology’s brave new dawn. Political parties, religious denominations and cultural stripes matter less and less as community and relationship and connectedness matter more and more.
To the pessimist the world is going to hell in a very large hand basket. The speeding information superhighway pulls us to frightening places and enables us to fight old wars with new weapons. Our very identities are no longer safe, as the reality of relationship is traded for the convenience of blurted communications mediated through well-crafted avatars.
Individually, and societally, progress often seems tenuous at best. We focus on two steps backward and forget forward moves. We forge new year’s fitness commitments only to laze and binge by springtime. We dig freshly into spiritual commitments that fizzle out and leave us wearied. We stare into the glaring eyes of habits that just won’t die. We remain haunted by past regrets we cannot seem to shake. The “me” I don’t like seems to wake me up each morning, and the “me” I want to be seems to leave me in his racing dust.
Time is moving forward and we are aging, year by year. But are we growing? Is this progress? Future. Past. Dawning utopia. Impending apocalypse. The long lost golden age. I am building a better me. I am fighting my demons. This is all of that and more. This is progress.
deadlines are as follows:
- Feature Gallery (June 17-30, 2011) submission deadline April 15, 2011
- Event Space (June 17-19, 2011) submission deadline May 31, 2011
- Short Film Presentation (in the Event Space) submission deadline May 31, 2011
for more information, or to download the call for submissions, please go here.
