The reality around us is fragmented: identities of origin and gender mingled with cultural beliefs, and everyday events. Gestalt psychology contends that humans strive for order and therefore seek the whole: we try to group elements into a consistent pattern. We process parts of reality by arranging them together, trying to create order, which results in a sense that the whole is different than the sum of its parts. This two-chapter exhibition invites viewers to try resisting this tendency, potentially avoiding the undesirable repetition of personal and collective patterns. The works in each chapter, together and individually, attempt to create an experience where contradictions between fragments and whole are tolerated and contained.
