Standpoints

I am curating my first large exhibition at Lawndale Art Center titled Standpoints. It is a three-person group exhibition featuring Jeremiah Ariaz, Sandy Carson, and David Politzer. Standpoints focuses on people’s unique, variable experiences. We may all attend a concert, visit a national park, or read about the tales of cowboys and Indians, but how that information is processed and expressed can never have one truth. Everyone’s standpoint holds a different truth that is no more right or wrong than the next person.

In the parable of the blind men and an elephant, a group of blind men decide to touch an elephant to learn what it is through direct interaction. One man touches the elephant’s tusk, another touches its trunk; each man touches a different part of the elephant. When the blind men come together to describe the elephant, they all have vastly different interpretations of the elephant. While this parable varies in delivery throughout regions and time, the story always summates that one’s subjective experience can be true to them, but is still inherently limited since it can never account for everyone’s experience. It implies that we must be aware of other truths and must respect differing perspectives, an important message that still deeply resonates in today’s climate and an inspiration for this exhibition.

Please join me on Friday, March 11th at 6:00pm. I will be giving a short 5-minute talk about the exhibition and introducing the artists. There are four galleries in Lawndale Art Center as well as a sculpture garden and mural. The Lens Capsule will also be parked outside, exhibiting photos by Rick Custer.