Tropical Contemporary Presents: Nailbiter

Tropical Contemporary Presents
Nailbiter
Opening
Friday, November 4th, 2016, 6 PM – 9 PM
Tropical Contemporary, 1120 Bailey Hill #11
Eugene OR
www.tropicalcontemporary.space
Facebook Event

Following in the footsteps of Teenybopper and
Lollygagger, Tropical Contemporary presents Nailbiter, a group show of local artists working with ideas of idiosyncratic psychological tendencies. Fear, the emotional response to threat, danger or abjectness. Cortisol floods the central nervous system and
pupils dilate with a sharp inhale. Should we flee? Fight? Gag? We’re yelling at the car in front of us as if this has become the lion our genetics tell us we should be fleeing thousands of years ago on the savannah plains. These impulses become even further
removed, as we watch actors on screen run from bloodthirsty killers, tapping our veins as we crave the adrenaline rush brought on by this illusion of danger. The fight or flight response, a genetic hijacking, conditions us through Pavlovian mechanisms to acquire
unique and problematic coping mechanisms. Nail biting, a mild form of the obsessive compulsive tendency, Trichotillomania, rewards us for ripping small pieces of cuticle and nail; tiny self-cannibalizations. This can temporarily hold off the cortisol; small
fleshy sacrifices to help channel our focus. This behavior we pass down socially, learning from our loved ones who cope in this same way.

Through a variety of media, including painting,
sculpture, photography, and video, Tropical presents a show that looks at this relationship of behavior and stress, venturing into the creepy, grotesque, and abject.

Tropical Contemporary is an itinerant collective
of emerging artists in Eugene, Oregon who are working to instill a climate of contemporary discourse, critique, and unbridled creation by finding ways to connect through visual, acutely visceral, and symbolic means.