The Syracuse University Art Museum is pleased to announce “Steady/ Retcon,” featuring the work of studio arts, film and media arts, and design master of fine arts thesis candidates enrolled in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Curated by Laura Dvorkin ’06, “Steady/ Retcon” features the work of ten contemporary artists—Sam Azghandi, Aaron Burleson, Manya Gadhok, Jana Herman, Xuan Liu, Lebogang Matseke, Valeria Oha, Shuoran Zhou, Zhu Zhu and Michael Christopher Zuhorski—who are evaluating and reframing their personal histories, traditional standards of art-making, and history, as a whole.
“Steady/ Retcon” is a part of a multi-venue exhibition divided among three University exhibition spaces and features 27 artists. The venues include the Syracuse University Art Museum, Point of Contact Gallery and the Sue and Leon Genet Gallery.
The museum’s presentation of the exhibition is free and open to the public beginning Thursday, March 31, and closing Sunday, May 15, in the Shaffer Art Building. The museum will host a reception on Thursday, April 7, from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by a talk with the exhibition curator, Laura Dvorkin ’06, at 7 p.m. in Shemin Auditorium. Museum hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursdays until 8 p.m., and closed Mondays and University holidays.
Exhibition Overview
Traditionally a literary and cinematic technique, retcon is the abbreviation of retroactive continuity and means a new piece of information introduced to a story that alters the interpretation of a previously established narrative. Although it is a word infrequently used, it is omnipresent. Retcon is not just employed in a fictional context, read in a book, or viewed on a screen, but experienced in the world around us. In the current climate, we are absorbing new information constantly (like it or not!), and it is challenging the way we see everything—day to day, hour to hour. Our internal database is developing at record speed. What was recognized as commonplace merely a year ago is being reexamined, and at times, by the entire world in unison.
The artists in this exhibition are evaluating and reframing their personal histories, traditional standards of art-making, and history as a whole. While in everyday life, the constant introduction of so-called facts and opinions appear erratic, the investigations held within the artworks in the exhibition are much more intentional, slower-paced, steady. They are careful and curious assessments removed from the web of media and into meticulously-presented ideas.
Here we have two applications of retcon—one that refers to the daily and ever-changing knowledge that we receive, and one that reflects the new details put forth by these artists through their work that will alter our perceptions. However small, each bit of information sets into motion a new interpretation of our environment, past, present, and future.
Exhibition Venues
Syracuse University Art Museum
Shaffer Art Building
Exhibition dates: March 31-May 15
Opening reception: April 7, 5-7 p.m.
Curatorial Talk: 7 p.m.
Point of Contact Gallery
The Warehouse
350 West Fayette Street
Exhibition dates: March 31-May 15
Opening reception: April 14, 5-7 p.m.
Sue and Leon Genet Gallery
The Warehouse
350 West Fayette Street
Opening reception: April 21, 5-7 p.m.
