Beyond Street-Lit Roads

February 8th – March 8th

Participants:

Peter Von Tiesenhausen, Colin Lyons, Sarah Anne Johnson

Whiles in the early Winter eve
We pass amid the gathering night
Some homestead that we had to leave
Years past; and see its candles bright
Shine in the room beside the door
Where we were merry years agone
But now must never enter more,
As still the dark road drives us on.

— William Morris, The House of the Wolfings, 1889

BEYOND STREET-LIT ROADS

According to statistics prepared by the United Nations, 2008 marked a significant milestone in human history: For the first time ever, the urban population was greater than the rural one. This migration has been virtually ceaseless since the industrial revolution, attracting people from the countryside, promising fortune for the masses, or at least to put bread on the table. Like the ancient Greeks longed for a lost the Golden Age, or Christians marvel at the Garden of Eden, those who left their rural existence soon dreamed of the simple life.

The allure of what is perceived to be a trouble-free existence, living in harmony with the natural world, has been reshaped time and again since the advent of the seam engine; from the 19th century arts and crafts to 1960s counter culture, Romanticism has continually reshaped our conception of nature. Increasingly, manufacturing is represented in a similar light. The factories with endless conveyer belts have moved to emerging economies, where the wages are low and the workdays long to ensure maximum profit. In major urban centers labor has become dematerialized and global, driven by the prevailing capitalist economical system, reducing sustainable development into a lifestyle choice for the wealthy, such as locally produced organic sourdough bread.

The artists featured in this exhibition grapple with topics such as nature and industrialism and subject them to critical processes, revealing overlooked and quotidian stories that complicate the Romantic meta-narratives that punctuate artistic discourse and give urban populations a misleading sense of synchronicity with the world beyond street-lit roads. Through a process of virtual self-selection, these artists themselves determine their own context, or at least the company they keep in this exhibition. Every framework, every milieu, is defined by its limits. Curatron has reformulated the role of the curator, traditionally the artistic middleman, encouraging artists to engage an algorithmic other in a process of self-selection. The set-up is playful, even empowering in its establishment of a network of digital links between artist, and at the same time holds within it the seeds for a future Romanticism.

— Aileen Burns & Johan Lundh

This will be the second exhibition of a three exhibition series Platform will be hosting with Curatron, an online system for artists to participate in the exhibition selection process. Artists can upload profiles and apply to exhibitions. All applying artists are taking part in selection process as the system calculates everyone's preferences and then presents an exhibiting group of artists.

curatroneq.com

Gallery Hours: 12:00 – 16:00, Thursday – Sunday

Supported by: (Esker and other partner logos)