Eating Crow (2019) - Fort Myers, FL

performance, sound installation

Student Artists : B.A. Wikoff, Ruben Dimas, Stephanie Escobar, Crystal Estrada, Sophia Hidalgo, Anet Morejon, Austin Tanner ,

Artist statementPerception is a powerful thing. It affects, infects, and then takes control of everything it encounters. A person’s perception of an object or an event makes a far stronger impact than the objective reality of whatever is being scrutinized. A traumatic event will cause no distress if it was never per-ceived as such in the first place. We, as a collective, have become complacent. We are pulled along blindly by the current, going with the flow. We are bombarded by so many images, so much information, that we become de-sensitized: horrific stories of human cruelty become normalized as we swipe to the next meme, the next post. Out of sight, out of mind. Like Nero, we fiddle while Rome burns. Information is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom. Who has time to distill the infor-mation we receive about our present reality into knowledge about its relationship to our past in hopes of gaining the wisdom we need to shape our future? Instead, we don our masks of willful ignorance that we mistake for happiness. The intention of Eating Crow is to reveal both the mask and what it hides. Art functions as Athena’s polished shield. Had Perseus looked Medusa directly in the eyes, he would have been petrified; unable to confront the monster. How do we take the history that we have buried and force it to be observed? How do we tear down the dam that people have unconsciously built, disrupting the flow of the current people have blindly followed? How can our suffering be forced out of mind, when it is in plain sight? For those who wish to keep wearing the mask in order to continue their everyday lives, the mirror shines back, blinding them with the sights they are used to. Those who choose to take a deeper look within, will see.

Artist statement

Perception is a powerful thing. It affects, infects, and then takes control of everything it encounters. A person’s perception of an object or an event makes a far stronger impact than the objective reality of whatever is being scrutinized. A traumatic event will cause no distress if it was never per-ceived as such in the first place.

We, as a collective, have become complacent. We are pulled along blindly by the current, going with the flow. We are bombarded by so many images, so much information, that we become de-sensitized: horrific stories of human cruelty become normalized as we swipe to the next meme, the next post. Out of sight, out of mind. Like Nero, we fiddle while Rome burns.

Information is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom. Who has time to distill the infor-mation we receive about our present reality into knowledge about its relationship to our past in hopes of gaining the wisdom we need to shape our future? Instead, we don our masks of willful ignorance that we mistake for happiness.

The intention of Eating Crow is to reveal both the mask and what it hides. Art functions as Athena’s polished shield. Had Perseus looked Medusa directly in the eyes, he would have been petrified; unable to confront the monster. How do we take the history that we have buried and force it to be observed? How do we tear down the dam that people have unconsciously built, disrupting the flow of the current people have blindly followed? How can our suffering be forced out of mind, when it is in plain sight?

For those who wish to keep wearing the mask in order to continue their everyday lives, the mirror shines back, blinding them with the sights they are used to. Those who choose to take a deeper look within, will see.

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