I put this moment … here. I put this moment … here. I put this moment … over here

Blending art, horticulture, sustainable technology

Opening Thursday, September 25, 2014 6 to 9pm

591 Broad Street
Newark, NJ 07102-4403
p. 973 622-1600
f. 973 622-6526
info@aljira.org

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday–Friday, 12–6pm
Saturday, 11am–4pm

from: aljira.org:

About Aljira Emerge:  Since its inception in 1999, the Aljira Emerge Program has been committed to providing artists in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan region with the skills and strategies to thrive in today’s competitive art world. Providing professional development opportunities for over 250 Emerge Artist Fellows. At the end of each program, each Fellow is included in a group exhibition as well as an exhibition catalog.

The excellent reputation of the Emerge program is built on the perseverance and commitment of the 21 artists that make up each new Emerge group annually, and they deserve recognition for investing their time and energy to their enterprise.

Aljira applauds the over 250 artists that make up the Emerge Community.

Emerge 11 Workshop Leaders: Alyson Pou, Ela Troyano, Colleen Keegan, Beverly McIver, Amy Smith, Jackie Battenfield, Dread Scott, Aaron Landsman and Edwin Ramoran

Emerge 11 Artists:
Katie Cercone, Nell Irvin Painter, William D. Caballero, Nobutaka Aozaki, Diana Schmertz, David Rios Ferreira, Heidi Lau, Stephanie Powell, Ariana Barat, Phoenix Lindsey-Hall, Patricia Cazorla, Ken Weathersby, Rosemary Taylor, Ann Oren, Tai Hwa Goh, Barbara Wallace, Vikki Michalios, Maria Buyondo, Isaac Aden, Jennifer Williams, Caroline Mak

About the exhibition from curator Jorge Rojas:
One of art’s greatest purposes is to help us connect everything from our historical and cultural past to our wildest and most unimaginable future. The artists in this exhibition, each with a strong and unique voice, explore artmaking as a way of relating to the world and, in doing so, are creating new information about how we make contact.

This year’s EMERGE program participants all focus on making connections from specific aspects of their lives with the world around them. These relationships are numerous and diverse, including social, cultural, sexual, physical, spiritual, historical, architectural, environmental, and biological.

A few days after visiting the artists’ studios in preparation for this exhibit, I heard the song “Jig of Life” from Kate Bush’s 1985 albumHounds of Love. Toward the end of the track, the singer solemnly intones, “I put this moment … here. I put this moment … here. I put this moment … over here.”

These lyrics strike me as a wonderfully simple and poetic illustration of the way we selectively organize our memories and experiences; the lines point to the systems we construct to make sense of and archive our experiences. How we choose to make connections is examined and illuminated here in the works of these 21 artists, who deliberately juxtapose and cross-reference points of contact within their lives to different points outside.

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