| New Project |  |
Axial Ethos Gallery |
In the Eyes of the Beholder - Axial Ethos
In the Eyes of the Beholder – *Axial **Ethos is the brainchild of noted iconographic artist Douglas I. Busch. Intimate and insightful, the images of this traveling exhibit render the recent history of the world, and have the goal to increase global understanding and tolerance. The Los Angeles Holocaust Museum and the No Strings Foundation support this project.
The exhibition will educate visitors about world history illustrating how people can transcend tragic circumstances and avoid creating them in the future. The intimate distance created by the artist between himself and the subject encourages a sense of self-reflection. This exhibition will travel to cities across the United States and Europe, and an exhibit book and lecture series, as well as an academic symposium, will accompany the exhibition.
This exhibition was developed with the intent to provide an archaeological dig into mind. Visitors will travel through the exhibition as witnesses to past events and will be encouraged to delve deeper. Busch has created an intentional disconnect in the exhibit to allow visitors to see the results of human carelessness which have affected the world’s social consciousness. The audience will leave the exhibition with a sense of the tenuousness of society and the limitations of placing a hierarchy on cultures and religions.
At a time when most contemporary art is void of inherent cultural emotional associations, this exhibition is steeped in collective and individual memory showing windows into renewal and revelation, and the delicate paradox between hope and discontent.
The visitors will travel through the exhibition at their own pace, choosing their paths based upon their whims. Some paths will lead to pleasant experiences (humanitarian endeavors, etc.), while others will lead to tragic events (Rwanda, the Holocaust).
EXHIBITION CONCEPT:
The exhibition will be housed in a freestanding three-floor building, which will be constructed specifically for this project. The building will be designed to be a temporary structure that can travel, and the structure will be part of the experience of the exhibition. It will also be a multi-media presentation stimulating all the senses.
Each floor will consist of intertwined pathways. Some of these paths will be pleasant with images of relief efforts, humanitarian endeavors, and charitable support. These passages will be lit with soothing lights and surrounded in warm colors. There will also be dark pathways, which will show some of the tragedies led to by ignorance, such as the Holocaust.
Visitors will plot their own paths through this exhibition and see what their decisions reap. However, at any turn the visitors will be given the choice to either continue on the path they have chosen or choose differently giving them different experiences and allowing for multiple visits.
The imagery in the exhibition will encourage the viewer to question their previous conclusions and lead them to discover new conclusions. We hope to elevate viewer’s consciousness through the exhibition experience so that visitors may change the way that they view the world in the future. The actual imagery and pieces in the exhibition are still under review. A book will accompany this exhibition.
EXHIBITING RATIONALE
This exhibition will travel to both large and small cities since exhibitions of this kind rarely go to smaller venues. This exhibition is about education and elevating consciousness, and must therefore be accessible to individuals in all sizes of communities.
*Axial: related to or forming an axis, the alliance, or association between people, organizations, or countries that is thought of as forming a center of power or influence. It is the straight line by which a society’s consciousness is plotted.
**Ethos: is a Greek word originally meaning 'the place of living' that can be translated into English in different ways. Some possibilities are 'starting point', 'to appear', 'disposition' and from there, 'character'. From the same Greek root originates the word ethikos meaning 'theory of living', and from there, the modern English word 'ethics' is derived.
