The ArtCat calendar is closed as of December 31, 2012. Please visit Filterizer for art recommendations.


ARTCAT



Jason Covert: CARNIVORA

540 W 28th +aRt
540 West 28th Street, New York, NY, 212-391-8151 x 26
Chelsea
September 16 - October 8, 2010
Reception: Thursday, September 16, 6 - 10 PM
Web Site


Cannery Works, chashama, and +aRt are proud to present the world debut of Jason Covert’s CARNIVORA. Located at chashama’s newest donated space in Chelsea, CARNIVORA is a crossdisciplinary exhibition of photography, illustration, sculpture, painted works, ceremonial artifacts and robes, poetry and literature, jewelry, as well as original musical compositions – all inspired by the 2004 discovery in Siorapaluk, Greenland of a series of rocky substrate slabs bearing markings indicative of a hitherto unknown Proto-Eskimo culture and language.

“If true, history as we know it is about to change – dramatically,” said Dr. Brian Lassengal, director of the expedition responsible for the discovery.

Drawing inspiration from the myth fragments now commonly known as “The Sacred Texts of Carnivora” (which if deemed authentic would predate the earliest known cuneiform writings by some 5,000 years), Covert applies his renowned skills as illustrator, designer, painter, photographer, and writer to weave fantasy and archaeology into a compelling narrative diorama, presenting to viewers both invitation and challenge: to imagine the vanished world suggested by those texts, and to question civilization’s claim to know its own history.

Ann Landi, contributing editor of ARTnews writes, “I can think of few (artists) who have so carefully constructed the remnants of a ‘lost’ world in such a vivid way that we enter its spirit and almost wish we could become a part of it.”

While these “Sacred Texts” may have been set down several millennia prior to humanity’s previously recorded emergence of writing, what Covert and his art have to tell us about our own era is just as startling. Can we – as a civilization, taking direction from Socrates – truly claim to know our history, to “know ourselves”? Or is that other sage, Picasso, correct, and is all art merely a lie created in order to reveal a truth?

www.flickr.com
Have photos of this show? Tag them with artcat11985 to see them here.