A Pot Nudged Into Oblivion

On View: Oct 7th - Nov 11 (Open by appointment only) Opening Reception: Saturday, Oct 7th (6 - 8 pm) 6 North Pearl street, Suite 404E, 4th fl, in Port Chester, NY The reception will include a short performance work by Meriel Pitarka, one of the artists featured in the exhibition. On view at MAPSpace Contact Jenn@jenncacciolastudio.com to schedule a visit. This exhibition is a continuation of the curatorial & community project formerly known as Ice Cream Social. "...So many of us are breathless, you know, like me kneeling to collect the pottery shards of a house plant my elbow has nudged into oblivion. What if I sigh, and the black earth beneath me scatters like insects running from my breath? Am I a god then? Am I insane because I worry about the disassembling of earth regularly? I walk more softly now..." - Jamaal May, Respiration In this exhibition, eight artists handle modes of fear and fragility while either upholding or peeling away facades of fortitude. Mechanisms of warning are scratched, punched, scrawled, and lovingly arranged. Knee-jerk reactions and masterful plans share the room, mocking one another's attempts. To fear loss is to document, sear into memory, to reincarnate. Certain terrors set familiar triggers into action — a cycle ensues. It gets into the bloodline, passing from one young buck to the next. What if inside this cycle exists a fractal pattern of ferociously-protective enfolding around those slightly more scared? Hundred-year-old tree rings huddled to one another, curve after curve. To name an amorphous fear sets its edges apart from all else, making it small against the world. There are some rules of engagement: you may lay like settled snow if at the feet of a brown bear, but a black bear will require your most monstrous form. A Pot Nudged Into Oblivion features work by Annika Earley, Shabnam Jannesari, Elena Kalkova, Zahra Pars, Meriel Pitarka, Cynthia Reynolds, Hannah Eve Rothbard, and Jen Schoonmaker, curated by Jenn Cacciola.