who held their heart in their hands, and ate of it

Artists: Ciana Anita Lee, Jamison Carter, Joe Davidson, Vita Eruhimovitz, Nancy Evans, Emily Lucid & Gosia Wojas, Atilio Pernisco, Levon Riggins, Gloria Sanchez, Molly Segal, Lior Shamriz, Rae Tweed, Olga Urbanek, Sammie Veeler, Kira Xonorika.

Curated by Regina Herod, Emily Lucid, and Alexandra Wiesenfeld.

Durden and Ray is thrilled to announce “who held their heart in their hands, and ate of it”, an exhibition featuring a diverse group of artists exploring interstitial moments of paradox using a wide variety of media. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, January 11th, 2025. Additional programming includes a video screening and discussion January 18th, and a night of performances on January 25th. 

“who held their heart in their hands, and ate of it” takes inspiration from  philosopher and writer Georges Bataille, whose work mines the terrain between opposites – atheism and faith, terror and ecstasy, the sacred and the profane. He considers the realms of the erotic and death as sacred, because both have the power to erase the boundaries that exist in the realm of the profane. The exhibition curators believe the everyday is marked by self- interest and self-control, which turns people into separate beings with separate thoughts. In moments when we approach impossible states—when everyday habits and ways of being are swallowed up by chaos, in instances of frenzy and ecstasy, eros and death-- life and consciousness temporarily fade away to create a meeting-place of terror and joy, where bliss, suffering, horror, and divine encounters can fuse into one. This is what Bataille calls the “great paradox.”

The artists in this exhibition exuberantly and courageously delve into that paradox, embracing inherent contradictions and eschewing predictability. In their works sensual beauty meets existential terror, matter meets energy, destruction meets creation. These topics have taken on another level of urgency as our politics have become more personal, urgent climate action more in doubt, and personal rights in question. It is difficult not to view the works in this show under the specter of today’s political climate. We exist in the realm of the profane, even though living fully in the paradox, the meeting point between opposites is where we come alive.