Curated by Tim Parsley

What role does story play in a society that seems increasingly defined by production, laws, budgets,

and CNN sound bites? For some, story is the luxury of childhood; packed away with toy gun holsters

and ballerina outfits when we head off into the “real-world” of adulthood. If story stays with us into

maturity, it is often regulated to the realm of “escape” or hobby – something to enjoy or find interest in

only once deadlines are met, clients are satisfied, dishes are washed and put away. Yet society still

finds solace, maybe desperately so, in blockbuster films and TV series, allowing them to indulge their

need for story.

Artists of different stripes have known that stories are vessels of meaning. Often fiction can be truer

than the facts. The imaginative helps us to see more clearly. How many of us, when hearing a tale

told well – whether through film, novel, or just a friend sharing a personal experience – have not felt

the resonance of connection with that story? While we may not share the particulars of the tale,

something corresponds with our experience – or calls us out from our experiences – and widens our

view, deepens our understanding, and locates our sense of being.

Mythography: An Exploration of Narrative exhibits the work of 13 artists who still believe in the

potency of story. While many of these works are elusive in meaning (as many good stories are), they

take on new layers of meaning when displayed alongside each other (we might say, they resonate

and deepen with each other). Some of the stories find their strength in archetypal narratives that have

defined entire civilizations while others are more personal, memoir-ish, giving the viewer a glimpse

into the private experience of the Other. Eve makes an appearance, though in vari ous guises in the

works of Jessica Grace Bechtel, Joseph Miller, and the sensuously delicate sculpture of Noriko

Kuresumi. History has a chapter as well: fragmented, re-pieced, and manipulated together in the

films of Bill Domonkos and the weathered book of photographs by Laura Fisher. Boats, descending

stairwells and flying blimps invite us to take a journey, to explore, to travel to lands unknown.

In the wake of Modernism’s insistence that art need only refer to itself, the works in Mythography

unashamedly take us somewhere else. Shirking Modernism’s academic dismissal of the narrative as

merely illustrative, they operate as windows into other realities. Consequently, Mythography offers us

another page in the various chapters being written after the story of Modernism, reminding us that

while surface carries its own important content, so much art made today goes beyond a dogmatic

attachment to the eminence of form.

People need stories. While Manifest is firmly committed to a broad range of artistic approaches, we

are proud to offer this distinct contribution to the telling of tales by visual artists and further fulfill our

mission of creating quality-centered experiences for the viewing public.