In the Shadow of the Millennium

In the Shadow of the Millennium features artwork by Shuvinai Ashoona, Katie Bethune-Leamen, Shary Boyle, FASTWÜRMS, Claire Greenshaw, Maggie Groat, Inflatable Deities, Camille Jodoin-Eng, Jenine Marsh, Allyson Mitchell, John Noestheden, Noxious Sector, Emily Pelstring, Mitch Robertson, Cole Swanson, and Andrew Harwood.
September 2 2016 to January 1, 2017

Every woman and every man is a star.

In the Shadow of the Millennium is a meditation at the intersection of the supernatural and the political as a platform for renewing social and ecological relationships. Seen through thirty-four materially alchemic, socially polymorphic artworks by artists from across the country, this exhibition beckons for a quickened return to and a reawakening of ancient knowledge.

Conjured through the syntax and symbols of magic, myth, luck, and ritual, a vision of the future reinvigorates our wondering, wandering minds, shaking us from the stupor of the 21st century and constant drive of the Anthropocene. Bear witness to the sincerity and generosity of the new sages and soothsayers, phantoms and fantasies, infused with a blend of ancient myth and individual autarky.

The ingredients for the exhibition are too numerous to exhaust. A partial list, assisted by Merriam-Webster, includes:
Alchemy: a science that was used in the Middle Ages with the goal of changing ordinary metals into gold; a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way.
1. Autarky: self-sufficiency, independence; a policy of establishing a self-sufficient and independent economy.
2. Conjuring: to make (something) appear or seem to appear by using magic; make you think of (something); to create or imagine (something).
3. Magic: the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces; an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source.
4. Polymorphic: the quality or state of existing in or assuming different forms; existence of a species in several forms independent of the variations of sex; the property of crystallizing in two or more forms with a distinct structure.

All of the ingredients are now inescapably considered within the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is a proposed epoch within which we currently find ourselves. This new epoch is understood to have begun when human activities started to have a significant global impact on the geology and ecosystems of the Earth. While there is presently no agreed upon beginning of this epoch, or consensus if it even exists, this exhibition proposes that enhanced industrial development and resource extraction coincided with an accelerated move away from ancient knowledge to the social and ecological detriment of all.

Curated by Darryn Doull

First Friday Exhibition Opening
Friday, September 2 6:00pm–9:00pm

Members Opening Reception
Friday, September 2 6:00pm

[ITSOTM]