A new show that maps artistic ‘Digression’

‘Digression’ is the title of a new show at New York’s Hendershot Gallery, featuring works by Divya Mehra, Justine Reyes, Chitra Ganesh, Liz Magic Laser, Mary A. Valverde, Simone Leigh, and Kenya (Robinson). It marks the inaugural exhibit at the gallery’s new venue.

The exhibition draws its title from a talk with Kara Walker in which the artist states ‘I’m sorry. I just digress. That’s all I do.’ In fact, digression is something that we apologize for in everyday speech; it’s construed as a problematic accident, a divergence from the main point, which weans away meaning and also dilutes the concentrated ‘essence’ of an artwork.

Elaborating on the theme, an accompanying note states, quoting linguist Sandra Schor that digression is something that we encounter along a carefully networked, formally composed route of discourse, which holds our attention, attracting us by how powerfully it tends to arrest us in its own form, its own argument hidden within an argument. The write-up adds:

“Just as a map does not always bring us to the most exciting place, digression can thrust us into a space of the unknown, the unfamiliar, a place that is unexpected and perhaps even a bit frightening simply because it is alien. Within digression lie the hidden stories, those that only come to light by an act of moving away from ‘the subject at hand’ — whether that is a conversation topic that one wishes to avoid or the entire accepted canon of literature or fine art. Digressers are like dreamers, creating imaginative acts without censors. Here, in the realm of digression, anything is possible.”

The artists access the hidden tales of their identities and their cultures through digression, thus pulling the viewers away from the fiction implicit in social norms. They enable us to interact, even play, sans the proverbial map. We end up somewhere unexpected, rather surprised, having followed their alternative paths.