The first iteration of my ongoing charcoal animation project, The Queen’s Mirror, will be on display at Space 711 at WCA as part of the group show Invisible Cities. I’m re-imagining Charlotte’s rise as a center for banking as the result of a strange and brutal series of encounters between financial entities as represented by their New York Stock Exchange ticker symbols. I’m thinking of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom meets The Wall Street Journal in an oneiric back alley. The show’s title refers to Italo Calvino’s book by the same name in which Marco Polo gives fantastic and poetic accounts to Kublai Khan of the cities he has encountered in the emperor’s vast domain.
September 6 – October 12
Opening Reception: September 6, 6:30 – 8:30
Live music by Ghost Trees
711 Pressley Road
Charlotte, NC 28217
Situated in the middle of a vast verdant swath between the mountains and the sea, is Carlotta. Artificial volcanoes above and below the city gush an endless supply of heat and light. The inhabitants are like those of any city… except for a creature that is the last of its kind. Feared and worshiped by the smaller denizens, the beast is the last survivor of an era that saw great battles between it and countless under matched rivals from lands near and far. These battles customarily ended with the victor consuming the vanquished. As a gesture of tribute, the people devoured their own history as the creature devoured its foes. This strange burg now exists as series of disconnected floating islands as its people look to the volcanoes for a sign of what the future will bring.
