"Heroes" opens May 5 at Bryce's Barber Shop and across the street at room 30, with an opening reception Saturday May 5, 6-8pm. Here is a little bit about the show, provided by elin o'hara slavick.
When Laura Sharp Wilson and I first began our collaborative series of Heroes (that includes heroines), it was 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 I 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.
We exhibited the first twelve or so of our heroes at the beautiful Bryce’s Barbershop Gallery in Olympia, Washington. I take my hat off to my comrade Laura Sharp Wilson for always meeting me halfway as an artist, mother, teacher, friend, activist – through thick and thin – but especially for taking this project on. Laura is the reason why the Heroes project is growing and hopefully, traveling. She invited 50 artists to respond to the idea of heroes and the heroic, to join us in our efforts to offer glimmers of hope and resistance in our dark and troubled times. The response includes a heroic wonder woman, Louise Bourgeois, Dennis Kucinich, abstractions, 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”.
At the time of this writing I still have not decided who my hero will be for this manifestation of Heroes – either 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, or John Berger (I just want to sing his name too) for always offering intense critique and steadfast solidarity through his generous writings, or mothers trying to protect their children beneath American bombs, or Sue Coe, Cesar Chavez, Student Action with Farmworkers, my parents, Sacco and Vanzetti, Subcommandante Marcos; Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie, Bayard Ruskin, Junius Scales, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Susan Sontag, people all over the world marching against war, people who believe that ending and abolishing war is not only possible but necessary.
Written by elin o'hara slavick
Artist, Activist, and Professor of Art at UNC-Chapel Hill
Artists Included in "Heroes":
Josh Abelow
Becca Albee
Nicole Awai
Leah Bailis
Amanda Barr
Judith Bauman
Charles Parker Boggs
Martin Bromirski
Tammy Rae Carland
Wendy Chien
Koren Christofides
Jerstin Crosby
Kimya Dawson
Julia Elsas
Paul Evans
David French
Pete Froslie
Joy Garnett
Beth Grabowski
Joanne Greenbaum
Eleanor Grosch
Harrison Haynes
Adrianne Herman
Hope Hilton
Andrew Johnson
Fay Jones
Jenny Laden
Michael Lease
Jane Marsching
Marisa Ann Martino
Hong Ngo
Paul Nudd
Ashley Oates
Beth Piver
Brian Reeves
Josh Rickards
Amie Robinson
Lisa Sheirer
elin o'hara slavick
Susanne Slavick
Carl Smith
Allyson Mellberg Taylor
Jeremy Taylor
Bill Thelen aka Lump Lipshitz
Paul Valadez
Silvia Velez
Stacey Lynn Waddell
Jeffrey Waites
Laura Sharp Wilson
Tory Wright
