Jan 21st 2011

Our Demons

@ DOVA Temporary

5228 S Harper Ave, Chicago, IL 60615

Opening Friday, January 21st, from 6PM - 9PM

On view through Saturday, February 26th

Demons possess us: they dissolve the boundaries between the self and the non-self, the inside and the outside. In ancient Greece the term “daimon” was used for different kinds of supernatural creature, super- or sub-human, familiar spirits that were not necessarily bad. Since then the term demon has come to describe the evil or unclean spirits that populate many religious traditions. The idea that demons are more metaphorical than real might be viewed as a mark of modernity. But are they really no longer real to us? If I “have demons” — addictions, obsessions, perversions — they’re inside me, but I don’t control them, or at least it often doesn’t feel like I do. We project our demons onto others, and turn them into concrete figures of evil. Society has its demons — abjected identities like terrorist, sex offender, bitch, gang member, queer. What do they say about us and our subjectivities and identities? Are we our demons?

This exhibition is co-curated by Renee Stout and Rebecca Zorach in conjunction with their CAA Centennial Panel, Our Demons.

Work by Carol A. Beane, John W. Ford, Maria Jönsson, Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Mary Patten, Michael B. Platt, Laurie Jo Reynolds, roycrosse and travis.

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