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Strange Hope: An ephemeral exhibition celebrating new beginnings & creative economies
2/6/2009 - 4/2/2009 | An exhibition celebrating the Strange Hope of an new era. 40 artists were invited to produce 8.5' x 8.5 works on paper. On opening night a one time, on-site lottery will take place which seeks to embrace our cultural affluence and welcome the advent of creative economies. Artists include pilar aguëro-esparza, raúl aguilar, juana alicia, jesus barraza, charles beronio, sylvia buettner, monica canilao, tân khánh cao, victor cartagena, melanie cervantes, jaime cortez, rudy cuellar, ali dadgar, andy díaz-hope, verónica duarte, ana t. fernández, colleen flaherty, tirso gonzález, pato hebert, giovanni higuera, jason jägel, jody jock, sahar khoury, john leaños, juan luna avin, sean mcfarland, scott mcleod, julio césar morales, michelle muennig, angélica muro, mabel negrete, txutxo pérez, johanna poethig, silvia poloto, juan carlos quintana, rigo 23, artemio rodríguez, favianna rodríguez, jenifer wofford, rené yañez, and rio yañez
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STRANGE HOPE
An ephemeral exhibition celebrating new beginnings and creative economies
This exhibition is about the oddity of hope. Conceived soon after Election Day, November 4th, 2008, as we marveled that the improbability of a black man and his young family occupying the White House became true. We wanted to join the celebration and build on the momentum of a new era and on the transformational power of symbolic politics.
This once, we are able to peer into the eye of power —at least momentarily. We are inspired to re-imagine ourselves as agents of change, working with and not against a pyramidal political structure that has historically disenfranchised our communities; those of artists and poets, of activists and lefties, of migrants and nomads and outcasts and poor - hopeful that we can reconfigure a new form of efficiency out of the unprecedented coalition of grass-roots organizing and executive leadership. Who would have thought that at the end of eight dark years of brutal ineptitude, we could witness the dawn of a more enlightened era? But perhaps, one cannot exist without the other.
Thirty-eight artists responded to our call and each contributed a small work, 8.5 x 8.5 inches. During the opening reception, each artist accepted to give away their work —a part of him or herself— through the random forces of a lottery process, while simultaneously receiving a piece from another artist’s world. At the end of the exhibition, each artist will go home with a work by some one else. As such, in the spirit of ancient rituals of bartering, swapping and gift economies, Strange Hope is also about community building, solidarity, generosity, and gratitude.
In midst of a stale economy, Strange Hope also seeks to generate movement, to unleash a fresh flow of artistic capital that bypasses the current economic standstill brought on by corporate greed. It is about inserting poetic politics into our everyday practices and exploring alternate economies that reframe the power of art as a means to circulate the values of creativity and collective involvement that we cherish within our community.
Carolina Ponce de León
Curator
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