Power Trip
Site: 120710
Mar 01 – 22, 2025
Curators: John Rogers and Gemma Szusterman
Description: What is power? “Power Trip” maps the variety of ways artists conceive of power. The work in this show upends traditional conceits and ranges from grand to subtle – exploring the mightiness of softness and the fragility of hard edges through investigations of symbolism, materials, and invocations. These artists create new mystical lexicons by usurping and kludging iconography. They exploit materials to reveal the alchemy of intention.
Unsurprisingly, there are many definitions of power in the dictionary. Power can, after all, be used as a noun, verb, or adjective. The word often elicits images of dominance and violence. Some of the works traverse themes of brutality and rupture, while others navigate notions of “soft” power – the magical, and the sublime. Many of the pieces dance on the line between, exploring juxtapositions and tensions of contrasting forces.
All of the work examines how power manifests as a feeling, object, or idea, and the various paths that promise it as a reward.
