Concept

Engagement is a way of capturing attention, a way of alluring and a way of enticing to possess ownership. We could implement this as a way of attracting an audience, being drawn into a system and in turn be captivated. Such methods can include smoke screens, masquerade and stings.

We can be engaged in political upheaval and in contrast engaged to be married. Either way if one shows the willingness to engage then they are seized, arrested and caught, through an innocent human desire to absorb and be engrossed.

What happens when this engagement is done in a malicious, unlawful and corrupted way? When does the real become hyper-real? Entrapment is the process of this transition to occupy whether through political, artistic or personal systems.

What is the ethical concern over this? Is the viewer guilty for being engrossed in a piece of work that is deemed vulgar or inappropriate; a guilty pleasure? Is the accused guilty until proven innocent? Is the artist wrongly committed for a self-indulgent expression? Does this polarity repel or assist the convicted?

International artists have been invited to submit work which explores a subversive engagement, use tactics and trickery to captivate and which contests rules and laws of a system. Aesthetically, artists works entices the audience, engages them in viewing and ultimately entrap them into the work. Will the viewer be engrossed, cheated or convicted?

Works featured include traditional art forms of photography, painting and sculpture but also the contemporary processes of interventions, installations and new media.

Flyer

Flyer

Catherine Nelson



New Orleans, Louisiana and Philadelphia, PA, USA

Curtsy / digital print from monotype original / 20" x 14" €70
Curtsy (2) / digital print from monotype original / 12" x 20" €70
Minette / digital print from monotype original/ 20 1/2 x 14" €70
Daughter of... / digital print  from monotype original/ 16 7/8" x 9 1/2" €70

In my hometown in Louisiana, I witnessed and experienced race, class and gender-based issues in their most subtle and maddening incarnations. I participated in pageantry events such as Mardi Gras and debutante balls, noticing as a young woman how these events, though joyful and celebratory, seemed to crystallize the societal differences between people. 


These prints were drawn reductively from an inked plate. I began by photographing social club events that I had been part of, drawing from them using nontraditional tools (rags, mattboard, makeup sponges) into a field of ink. Using this technique, I could not erase.  The process eliminated the opportunity to edit or beautify; and strange, warped characters emerged. They contain both the intense love and the frustration I feel toward my native culture. The meditative process of drawing these figures allowed me to reflect on the past,  present and future of my corner of the American South.