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Manifest

Colonial Tendencies of the West

September 14 - November 17, 2007
Opening Reception: Friday, September 14, 2007
Supporter's Reception: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Public Reception: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Courtesy of the artists
Copyright Luis Gispert & Jeffrey Reed">

Luis Gispert and Jeffrey Reed
Blasterettes, 2004
c-print
27" x 39"
Courtesy of the artists
Copyright Luis Gispert & Jeffrey Reed

The Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS presents Manifest: Colonial Tendencies of the West, an exhibition that explores the concept of colonialism from political, social, geographic, and commercial standpoints. The exhibition will be on view from September 14 through November 17, 2007.

Colonialism is a term used to describe the occupation of an area by a group of people who then impose rule or influence over the previous inhabitants. People may occupy ideas, commerce, and social settings in the same way that they may occupy land. Copyright law that allows people to lay claim to ideas, high school cliques that govern social boundaries, and commercial exports that dominate corners of the market are all forms of colonialism.

A clear example of the West’s colonial tendencies is found in the Manifest Destiny – a slogan and doctrine promoted in the 1800’s that stated America’s divine right to push West and absorb lands by force if necessary. This mentality, although not currently promoted, is still a driving force in the West’s relationship to the world. The West exports its people, politics, culture and products to occupy and influence the land, minds and markets of the world.

Colonization often results in hybrid cultures when competing customs clash. Anime is the result of the export of American animation to the Japan which in turn took what it liked, added its own style and subjects and exported it to the West where it is wildly popular. Cheerleader culture is absorbed and modified by American minority youth to make something quite different from its white bread origins.

Manifest: Colonial Tendencies of the West features approximately thirty works by artists from around the globe. Each artist in Manifest takes the benign and aggressive aspects of Western colonization and makes manifest the resulting mixtures of culture, politics, and commerce. Manifest presents work by Philip Kwame Apagya, Amy Chan, Luis Gispert and Jeffrey Reed, Patti Hallock, Danny Ledonne, Louise Noguchi, and Kehinde Wiley. The exhibition features documentary photographs of Wild West recreation villages, a film that hypes American sterotypes, paintings of franchise restaurants dropped into pastoral landscapes, a video game that deals with the Columbine Massacre, paintings and sculpture of hip-hop culture, photographs that document suburban basements, and portraits of Ghanaian citizens taken in front of backdrops depicting their dream lives filled with Western exports.

“This exhibition will be a major step forward for the contemporary art scene in Colorado Springs,” said Christopher Lynn, Director of the Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS. “We will be exhibiting internationally-known artists who have never shown in Colorado. Manifest tackles difficult topics in a way that we feel the public will understand and respond.”

Manifest: Colonial Tendencies of the West was curated by Christopher Lynn, Director of the Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS. This is Lynn’s first curated exhibition for UCCS. Previously, Lynn was the Assistant Curator of Museums and Galleries at DePauw University.

Catalogs

Catalogs are available for the exhibition:

• $8 for GoCA Supporters and UCCS students
• $10 for the general public.

Events

Pre-Show Appetizer
Thursday, August 30, 7:00 p.m.
Learn more about the artists and themes in the exhibition, Manifest: Colonial Tendencies of the West. Impress your family and amaze your friends with the insightful knowledge you will display at the opening reception that you picked up weeks earlier at the Pre-Show Appetizer. Regular permit parking restrictions are lifted for lots 3 and 4 during the presentation.

Opening Reception
Friday, September 14
Supporter Reception: 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. (for GoCA Supporters and UCCS Students)
Public Reception: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
The opening reception will consist of breakdancing, digital and manual coloring book activities, food, fun, and the some of the best contemporary art seen in the region. A reception for Gallery Supporters will begin at 5:30 p.m. Manifest artist Louise Noguchi will speak from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. At 7:00 we will open our doors to the public to view the exhibition and participate in Gallery activities until 9:00 p.m. Permit parking restrictions will be lifted for lots 3 and 4 only during the opening reception.

Soul Mechanics: Breakdancing Informance
Friday, September 21, 6:00 p.m.
The Colorado Springs b-boy group will present an “informance” (lecture/performance) at the Gallery of Contemporary Art. Soul Mechanic’s tight breakdancing moves reveal the myriad of cultural influences that created the phenomenon in 1970’s urban environments. Join us as we learn more about breakdancing, its culture, and roots.

Anime Nation
Every Thursday between September 20 and November 15, 7:00 p.m.
Join us as we watch pivotal Anime series and movies at the Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS. Regular permit parking restrictions are lifted for lots 3 and 4 during the Anime screenings.

Bad Art Night: Shadowing Kara Walker
Saturday, October 13, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Create bad art in the style of Kara Walker’s colonial themed silhouettes. As always, the rule at Bad Art Night is that no good art is allowed. Permit parking restrictions are not enforced at UCCS on Saturdays.

Film Night: Future Remembrance
Friday, November 9, 7:00 p.m.
Come view Future Remembrance (USA, 1998, color, 55 min.), a film by Tobias Wendl and Nancy du Plessis featuring Manifest artist Philip Kwame Apagya. This is a delightful, exuberant, documentary about the role of photography, photographers and the art of image making in Ghana. We meet the photographers, sculptors and painters who tell us in their own words about the economic, social, cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual motivations of their work. Innovation and improvisation abound, from the traveling photographer who has been making and selling his own cameras out of wood and scrap since the 1930’s to the studio photographers who specialize in providing elaborate backdrops that inspire their customers poses. The influence of American print media on local artists exists but the resulting work is so transformed in the process that the original source is almost unrecognizable. Future Remembrance is the winner of the Award For Excellence Society for Visual Anthropology Award, Vitas Folklore Film Festival, UCLA.

Settlers of Catan-A-Thon / Exhibition Closing
Saturday, November 17, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Joins us at the Gallery as we play marathon sessions of the popular board game, Settlers of Catan. Settle the land of Catan and harvest its natural resources to build villages and cities while oppressing your opponents for fun and profit. Permit parking restrictions are not enforced at UCCS on Saturdays.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by:

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