September 18 – November 20, 2022

Opening Reception: Sunday, September 18, 2022, 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Curious Matter, 272 Fifth Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302

Where we are is a basic concern of all humans. Our awareness of place probably stems from our need for self-preservation. An awareness of our surroundings and what may be lurking in them keeps the lion at bay and we get to live another day. The first artistic and magical symbols that ancient humans conceived of and drew were the line, the cross, and the grid.

The line is the way we describe our path of movement. It is a record of where we have gone or are going, from here to there. It also demarks our position in the landscape. The line is the horizon, above is the air, below is the Earth. The cross is an abstraction of the cardinal points: north, south, east, and west. It divides and orders space. Wherever we are, we are the center and from us space moves outward on all sides. The cross becomes the stability and regularity of the number 4: the seasons, the elements (fire, water, earth, air) and the winds. The grid is the idea of being static, of stillness and solidity. It depicts our idea of connected community; the created (what I have built) as opposed to the uncreated (the spirit). The grid is grounded in the process of manifestation. Through these basic symbols, humans began to define themselves and their place in the world. They began to understand where was here and safe, and where was there and danger.

Curious Matter has brought together three artists: Enrico Gomez, Emmy Mikelson, and Kirsten Nash who each have based their ideas on location and geography. Each are looking at the earth and trying to define what is place, where is here, and what are we doing with it.

The artists in “Where is Here” are interested in the idea of place. Each of them is imposing something on the landscape. Gomez wants us to honor the naturalness, and spiritual identity of the land. Mikelson holds the middle ground between naturalness and human intervention – we should strive to work with the land as we build. Nash is more accepting of our interference and finds a sort of comfort with how we have constructed our place in it. These are not conflicting ideologies. As stewards of our planet, we have to consider all of these aspects. We are here and we have made our mark. What must we do now and in the future to keep the only place we have to live viable and healthy? What brings us comfort and still allows us to live compatibly with the other creatures that inhabit this Earth. As we forge these new means of living, we will create a new concept of “here.”

IMAGE: EMMY MIKELSON, River Scintillation, 2016, mixed media on paper (digital photograph and oil – photo taken at Adolpho Ducke Rainforest Reserve, Manaus, Brazil) 17 x 30 inches