MOUNTAIN: A heterogeneous summer group show based on the premise that on the internet and in life in general, many of us feel that we daily face a mountain of challenges and opportunities . We find moments of fear and worry and we also find moments in which we experience wonder and a feeling of the sublime.
Mountain
In the past couple of years I have noticed artworks incorporating mountain images. I am wondering why.
Maybe mountains can be a metaphor for today's world and the Internet. In the last century a steady development and rate of change was assumed, more of a flat horizon. Now through the internet we are looking at a mountain range of information: peaks and valleys, landslides and avalanches, things hidden, things exposed, more and more, faster and faster. Exploring can be exhilarating and exhausting.
Mountains are places of personal, cultural, spiritual wonder and beauty. They are also places of danger and can be daunting. They are so big, so rugged, yet tender flowers do make their way up in the rocky terrain. Being on a mountain, or even just looking at a mountain, one can't worry about measuring up... it is all bigger and more important... which can be oddly reassuring.
Like a mountain, the Internet is daunting. One cannot help feeling the pressure to keep up, to measure up. For me the Internet is a place of wonder and beauty, so big, rugged and complex, with its occasional tenderness. But, just as a mountain stands beyond a comparison to our human scale, in front of the growing mass of information, one can't worry. It's enough to stand in awe.
Jane M. Beebe
