Sites of the Self

Sites of the Self brings together works by Oolite Art’s current cohort of resident artists to explore how selfhood is forged and understood. Encompassing a broad array of mediums, methodologies, and mindsets, the exhibition examines the insights that naturally emerge as artists utilize their practices to work through the experiences that condition who they (we) are and who they (we) get to be. At the core of this examination is a notion that undergirds much of contemporary theory: that the self is not a finished product we are born into, but rather a continuous work in progress, a malleable construction that takes form at the intersection of internal psychology and a host of powerful social vectors.

For the theorist Édouard Glissant, the self emerges primarily as a function of interpersonal relations, through our interactions with the other—with difference. And if the construction of the self is a dynamic, contingent operation, Glissant argued, we need not fear the loss of some core (“root”) identity through these exchanges. On the contrary, it is by virtue of the other that we may discover, or rather, continue to construct, our truest selves. The exhibition affirms this view and goes further by probing the sites where this shaping occurs, expanding outwardly from the binary relationship between self and other, to the cloistered “safe space,” to the open social arenas where identity is regulated, made to conform, and contested.

Featuring works by Diego Gabaldon, Gonzalo Hernández, Pangea Kali Virga, Sepideh Kalani, Shayla Marshall, Bex McCharen, Lucía Morales, Genesis Moreno, Ana Mosquera, Sheherazade Thénard, Nadia Wolff, Ricardo Zulueta, and José Delgado Zúñiga.

Curated by René Morales, Senior Curatorial Fellow, Bakehouse Art Complex