Questioning the Great Divide : Me and Not-Me

An exhibit of Art and Poetry curated by Fernando Llosa and Kim Schrag

January through March 2007
Opening Reception: Friday, January 26, 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Aware that humanity is increasingly threatened by enormous problems of its own making, twenty local artists present work questioning the separation traditionally assumed to exist between the self and the "other"; among different cultural groups, and between humanity and the physical world as a whole.

Participating artists include:
June Szabo, (sculptor and weaver)
Camille Doucet, (painter)
Andrew Gillis, (photographer)
Joseph Carrozzo, (painter)
Harry Littel (photographer)
Mario Hernandez, (poet)
Roald Hoffmann, (poet)
Jeni Whitman, (multi-media artist)
Jane Dennis, (sculptor)
Yvonne Piburn, (painter)
Brody Parker, (painter)
Linda Price, (painter)
Barry Perlus, (photographer)
Dora Donovan, (painter)
John Lyon Paul, (painter)
Ella Sadza-Loinaz, (printer)
Michael Finn, (drawing)
Peter Dodge, (composer)
Kim Schrag, (drawing)
Fernando Llosa, (painter)

Fernando Llosa and Kim Shrag posed the following statements to artists:

1. We present and question the division generally claimed to exist between "Me" and the rest of the known and unknown Universe —in its ecological, biological, cellular, molecular, atomic and sub-atomic dimensions— often perceived as "Not-Me". The illusory nature of this division becomes apparent as we reveal that, beyond the very surface of things, the boundaries created by the alienated and conditioned mind are irrelevant if not outright false.
   
2. We present and question the division generally claimed to exist between "Me" and another human being perceived as "Not –Me". We question the reality of this division given that both, "you" and "I", have largely the same physical characteristics; the same life cycle; the same instincts and drives; the same fundamental needs for sustenance, security, housing and relationship; and the same stubborn identification with exclusive psychological and cultural memories and ambitions that determine for everyone a dangerous and common sense of separation from others.
   
3. We present and question the moral division claimed to exist between "Us", presumably the "good guys", and others perceived as "Them", the "bad guys"; "Not–Me". We question the right of anyone to claim ethical superiority over anyone else given that the root cause of all human problems, including all overt and covert violence, personal and collective, lies in the self-centeredness and the ethnocentrism (the narrow tribal identification) that characterizes the conditioned human psyche.
   

He then asked the artists to map out in a very graphic and artistic manner the nature and extent of the falseness of the duality between "Me" and "Not-Me". The intent of the artists is for people visiting the show to independently questioning their own sense of separation in the mirrors thus provided.

The show aims to present things as they are, not to tell people what to do about them.

The exhibit is made possible in part by funds from the Community Arts Partnership/NY State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program.