09 Jun - 17 Sep 2011
The Empire Project is proud to announce its second exhibition featuring the works of Halil, Rasha Kahil, Sean Lee, Manolo Menéndez, Gözde Türkkan and Gökşin Varan on June 09 - September 17, 2011.
In the end we are alone. Cold. Abandoned in a giant social collective. Solitary, naked little individuals, sharing one common denominator: we are Human.
We try to find or create our own niche, our comfort zone in the noise and confusion of it all. Just as moths move toward a source of light we crave some comforting, all-encompassing glow that offers us a warm embrace, without judgment.
Standing as the eternal outsiders, peeking in through windows, looking for that flicker that will warm us.
If not that, then it is a new community - that of the dispossessed - where we embrace new behavioral icons, new mothers and fathers. Basking in the maternal or paternal glow of acceptance, yet even our acts of rebellion come in collective form.
The community is damning: we want and crave it, but fear its judgment. As children craving some higher acceptance, through all trials and tribulations, this need for a sense of purpose riddles us inwardly. We desire that acceptance in our flawed or distorted visions of perfection.
Please tell us that these experiences were not in vain! Assure us with your warm breath that we did not disappoint you. Mother, Father: that which I crave to be, to be a part of, to dominate, kill, vanquish. That creator which I, as a creature, should prove myself superior to. It is when I despair in my excess that I crave most your approval. That all that I did, all that was flawed about me brought me closer to your source.
Human aims to strip us. It is simply a quest, a journey with an unknown destination (in the light?). A way-seeking that will bring us into the fold, without judgment or question. We are the eternal martyr. We feel that deep down inside all that we live, all that we experience is only a test, a passion play, a gateway to salvation.
Human is not an answer. It is simultaneously a question, a statement, a situation report. Where is answer to the question asked in my travails, my sorry, my striving? What is it that brings me closer to salvation?
You will not find the final argument here. You can only trace the outlines of the question mark. Are roles inverted? Is society turned inside out on the imaginal stage? Do we celebrate a noble moment in the shit of it all? The triumphant infantile shriek of the ego's power is heard. We claim to have left our mark upon the earth... but have we?
We are Human: for this reason we will fail. For this we might expect collective judgment. For all this we will pay the price of the penitent, the martyr, the price of god's favorite or the devil's bitch. Our search for love is our search for god - and what is love but understanding, forgiveness, the snooze button on life?
It is the essential flaw in the stone that makes us truly beautiful, truly Human.
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