Lump is very pleased to present Heroes a group exhibition of work by 47 artists who explore heroes/heroines in their work. Lump will host an opening reception Friday, April 4th from 7 - 11 during the First Friday Gallery Walk located in downtown Raleigh. The exhibition will run from April 4 – 26 and is on view Saturdays from noon - 5pm.
Artists Laura Sharp Wilson and elin o’Hara slavick began a collaborative series of Heroes out of a need to name, recognize, honor and remember people who influence, inspire, change, educate and amaze us in our wreck of a world. We have grown accustomed to a comfortable disappointment in, lethargic shock of and a seemingly eternal dissatisfaction with this late-capitalist, “free trade,” global economy world that rewards corporate and military criminals and punishes the poor, the imprisoned, the victims of this system and anyone who tries to make it better, fairer, or a tiny bit more beautiful. Exhausted, depressed and almost hopeless – or as Helen Caldicott would say, “in a perpetual and survival state of psychic numbing” - Laura and elin decided to begin a series of poetic, spontaneous, simple and honest tributes to those who inspire us; who refuse to fight the rich man’s war; who sing truth to power; who write manifestoes of hope; who lead and fight and refuse to let power corrupt; who help the hungry and sick and maimed and poor; visionaries; poets; artists; historians; doctors; activists; Rachel Corrie; Josh White; Frida Khalo; Mother Jones; Paul Farmer; Ina May Gaskin.
They exhibited the first twelve heroes at Bryce’s Barbershop Gallery in Olympia, Washington. They invited 47 artists to respond to the idea of heroes and the heroic, to join them in their efforts to offer glimmers of hope and resistance in our dark and troubled times. The response includes a heroic wonder woman, Dennis Kucinich, Marguerite Barankitse – who saved 25 children during the Rwandan genocide – among many others. While some may claim that we do not need another hero, I think we need and have many in our daily lives. If this project helps artists to focus on something bigger than themselves, gives the audience some light and inspiration amidst the gloom and desperation, then it is had done a good job.
Certainly, Heroes will not end the brutal, senseless and immoral war in Iraq, but it may help us to fight harder to end it sooner. Heroes might take us by the fearful hand to block the road to Caterpillar bulldozers on their way to destroy Palestinian homes. Heroes may open our eyes enough to see that we can be our own heroes. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what makes a hero. For me, she is usually someone who would do something I do not have the courage to do. While I want to be a war tax resister, I am not because I do not want to go to jail (leaving my two small children). He is someone who consistently sees and shares the optimistic light despite criminal genocides, the capitalist victory of greed over community, the endless examples of cruelty, selfishness and ugliness. Heroes shine. They may have that Gramscian “pessimism of the spirit,” but they practice his “optimism of the will”.
I have many heroes: Howard Zinn (I just want to sing his name) for making anarchy and impeachment sound like the most rational, logical and democratic things on earth; John Berger (I just want to sing his name too) for always offering intense critique and steadfast solidarity through his generous writings; mothers trying to protect their children beneath American bombs; Sue Coe; Cesar Chavez; Student Action with Farmworkers; my parents; Subcommandante Marcos; Billy Bragg; Woody Guthrie; Bayard Ruskin; Junius Scales; Felix Gonzalez-Torres; Susan Sontag; Kurt Vonnegut and people all over the world marching against war, people who believe that ending and abolishing war is not only possible but necessary.
