Tabula Rasa Curated by Evonne M. Davis

Tabula Rasa
Curated by Evonne M. Davis
March 21 - May 16, 2009
Opening Reception March 21, 7-10 PM
with fully illustrated color catalog, essay by artist Ryan Schroeder

Tabula Rasa (' täbyoŏlə ˈräsə; ˈräzə) refers to an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate. The phrase carries baggage from belief systems in which the human mind at birth is viewed as having no innate ideas. Denying what is obvious is practiced as a gesture of resistance by some of the artists, most or all of whom are affected, however indirectly, by the notions derived from existentialism and the nothingness of existence, ennui. Inspired curatorially by the concept of residual information that persists after erasure, the exhibition is one of several to date by Evonne M. Davis concerning the nature of knowing, learning and unlearning.

ORIGIN Latin, literally 'scraped tablet,' denoting a tablet with the writing erased.

Artists: Dave Beck, Katrina Bello, Michael Davies, Brian DeLevie + Isshaela Ingham, Gary Duehr, Maria Emilov, Jonathan Franco, Brian Gustafson, Erik Hanson, Emily Henretta, Greg Leshé, Casey Lynch, Carol Petino, Kara Rooney, Ryan Schroeder,
Joshua Schwebel, Travis LeRoy Southworth, Ian Summers, Alexis West

Joshua Schwebel has traveled from Ontario, Canada to Newark to perform Displacement, a thematic exploration of the relationship between event, spectator and artist.

"I propose to challenge the audience to a game of hide and seek. I will publish the city block (giving the co-ordinates of four intersecting streets) and time-frame in the classified section of the Star Ledger under ‘lost and found’. This will define where and when I will be hidden. I will then hide within this outlined space/time block. I will remain in that position until the allotted time has elapsed."