Past Selves – Group Exhibition curated by Chukwudi Ukonne

Exhibition Dates: October 13 – 24

Reception: October 23, 6p – 8p

Open Hours by appointment

Participating Artists:

AP Harvey
Chukwudi Ukonne
Katherine Covarubbias
Kris Hawkins
Laken Jefferson /Ruffin McKinley
Madeline Herrera
Pooja Gupi
Samantha Strong Murphey
Sebastian Paramo
Tawanda Mulalu
Victoria Malone
William Gerst

Exhibition Statement:

The inevitability of change is, for better or worse, one of the defining realities of human experience. W e change because we choose to, because we have to, and sometimes because the world changes around us before we have had time to understand what is happening. If change cannot be escaped, then perhaps one of the central questions of life is how we reckon with what it leaves behind.

Nothing vexes the mind quite like nostalgia. Memory has a way of returning us to people and places that no longer exist as we remember them—including earlier versions of ourselves. W e encounter these past selves in photographs, abandoned ambitions, old relationships, familiar places, forgotten habits, and memories whose meanings have shifted with time. Some inspire tenderness; others embarrassment, grief, anger, hope or disbelief. Some represent an innocence we mourn, while others remind us of circumstances we survived or identities we had to shed in order to become who we are.

How do we negotiate the delta between who we were, who we imagined we would become, and who we eventually became? And what happens when we encounter a former self whom we can neither fully reclaim nor completely leave behind?

Past Selves is a multidisciplinary exhibition and poetry showcase exploring how we mourn, interrogate and honor the versions of ourselves we once were. The project will bring together 10–12 Dallas-based artists and poets, creating an interdisciplinary environment in which different mediums engage with and respond to one another. The exhibition draws on ideas of evolution and self-reckoning articulated by thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag . The goal at the heart of Past Selves is to facilitate an atmosphere of personal reflection and collective contemplation, where audiences can meditate on their own histories of transformation

Instagram: @chukwudiukonne