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Call for Art: Never Not Broken

January 25, 2016
Nnb square

Detroit’s biannual art show, Things Feel Heavy, is teaming up with the Ann Arbor Art Center to bring you Never Not Broken, curated by Wa href=“http://http://annavanschaap.com/” (BFA 2010): March 11 — 26 at Ann Arbor’s 117 Gallery.

Never Not Broken
Curated by Anna van Schaap
Exhibition Dates: March 11 — 26, 2016
117 Gallery, Ann Arbor MI
Opening Reception & Award announcement: Friday, March 11, 6 – 9 pm
Featuring a special screening of Lis Rhodes ​‘Light Music’ (last shown at Tate Modern) in conjunction with the Ann Arbor Film Festival
Deadline for Submissions: February 14, 2016

“In the end, everything is resolved, except the difficulty of being, which is never resolved.” ‑Jean Cocteau

The circumstances of life are such that at one point or another something will break us. The loss of a life, a love, a job, a home, will shake our foundation and we will inevitably crumble. We then consider ourselves defeated; disheartened and utterly broken. But there is power in the acknowledgment of brokenness.

Never Not Broken is taken from the Hindu Goddess Akhilanda or the ​‘Always Broken Goddess’. ​“Akhilanda derives her power from being broke: in flux, pulling herself apart, living in different selves [and states of being] at the same time, from never becoming a whole, that has limitations.” (*1)

“Fluid connections, the celebration of ambiguity and a sense of ritual in chaos… deeply invested in the notion of complexity, this work will explore the arena of [brokenness] as an entrée to rapture. Artists working in this mode push the deconstruction and dissolution of centre, definitions and boundaries to reach the sublime terror [and beauty] of placelessness [and brokenness]” *(2)

Brokenness is not indicative of weakness or inability, but rather can be a strong driving force towards creative output as a means of analysis, internalizing, and coping for many artists. This show seeks work that was created from a state of, and acknowledges our, Never Not Brokenness.

(*1) Excerpt from the online article Why Lying Broken in a Pile on Your Bedroom Floor is a Good Idea by Julie Peters, Elephant Journal
(*2) Excerpt from the Essay Beneath the Remains by Shamin M. Momin, The Gothic: Documents of Contemporary Art


Submission information is available on the a href=“http://thingsfeelheavy.info”>Things Feel Heavy website, or go directly to the Ann Arbor Art Center’s Call for Art to submit work to this show.