Chimera

Chimeras are hybrid creatures combining different animals into one creature, some examples which are combined with humans are a centaur (half horse, half human), a mermaid (half human, half fish), Anubis (half human, half jackal). Ganesha (half elephant, half human). Then there are creatures combining different animal parts, like Akhekh - A creature from Egyptian mythology with the body of an oryx and the wings and snout of a bird, and Hieracosphinx – A type of Sphinx that had a hawk head.

We are expanding the definition of Chimera for this exhibition to include any combining of two of more of inanimate or biological objects, such as household objects, machinery, animal, botanical, fungal, or microscopic organisms that normally do not go together, but when combined become a hybrid.

This also has a reference to Dada and Surrealism, described very well with the famous line from Les Chants de Maldoror by the Comte de Lautréamont/Isidore Ducasse: “beautiful as a chance encounter on a dissecting table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella."

Exhibiting Artists: Lilly Allan, Nicole Beck, Sharon Bladhom, Robin Carlson, Helen Dannelly, Doug DeWitt, Ted Sitting Crow Garner, Set Gozo, Carol Hammerman, Yvette Kaiser Smith, Fred Klingelhofer, John Kurman, Kim Laurel, Beatriz Ledesma, Gina Lee Robbins, Micki LeMieux, Norbert Marszalek, Angela McElwain, Howard Russo, Dominic Sansone, Krissy Schwartz, Marvin Shafer, Rich Stewart, Yi Sun, Cheuk Yan Cherry Tung, Roberta Ulrich-de Oliveira, John T. Upchurch, Nancy Van Kanegan, Bruce Webber, Lillian Wilkie-Jones, and Shencheng Xu.

Curated by Victoria Fuller

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