The John & June Allcott Gallery: Ejecta Projects Presents Scatter Terrain

Curated by Anthony Cervino and Shannon Egan

Registration link (available until start of event): https://unc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEldu6prTwtE93ZxakbbgFUlytwd-8lLWGb

Gallery Hours: Per our semester Covid policies, the exhibition can be viewed through the gallery’s glass front wall, 9-5 M-F

Featuring Artists:

Avye Alexandres, Chad Andrews, Sarah Aziz, Jackie Brown, Stefani Byrd, Zoë Charlton, Locus Xiaotong Chen, Sarah Crofts, Jason Cytaki, Jon Duff, Jason Ferguson, Els Geelen, Stephen Grossman, Stacy Isenbarger, Leekyung Kang, Heather Leier, Julia Matejcek, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Sarah Nance, Ken Reker, Dan Rule, Samantha Sanders, Stephanie Serpick, Casey Jex Smith, Chloe Wilwerding

The term “scatter terrain,” borrowed from role-playing and war games, refers to miniature fragments of architecture, natural features, or small props that provide a visual aid for players. Often conspicuously disjointed against an otherwise unadorned tabletop, these detailed, three-dimensional objects serve as cues to better envision a larger, shared narrative of the game. During our recent Covid-induced seclusion, the idea of scatter terrain offered an appropriate metaphor for imagined adventure when real travel was prohibited, especially against a backdrop that sometimes felt featureless, repetitive, or isolating. This exhibition presents pockets of “terrain” – peculiar landscapes, architectural gestures, intimate domestic corners – as a metaphorical means of escape from the pandemic and connection to those who are far away.

This selection of artists at first reflects a collective and sometimes oblique response to the pandemic, a reckoning with solitude and a longing for new places and people. Several art objects were created when most of us were still sheltering at home, and these artists articulated their anxieties and awareness of their limited domestic spaces through their works.  Now, as many of us are still struggling to redefine a “normal” world, the works shown here may be seen in relation to other fractures and traumas in our environment. For instance, the invented landscapes and abstracted spaces echo our concerns about the ongoing climate crisis.  Because some of the artists depict terrains that defiantly resist conventional illustrations of sublime, pristine nature, the works might be seen as fantastical dystopias. Other artists tackle contemporary social issues of personal and political identity to question the notion of belonging, within a persistent, and perhaps increasingly hostile world. What started as a call for disparate glimpses into distant lives and locations is now shifting toward a realization that our communal sense of place is still marked by a reckoning with an ailing world and an urgent need for new perspectives.

ABOUT EJECTA PROJECTS

Founded by artist Anthony Cervino and art historian Shannon Egan, Ejecta Projects is an art gallery, an artist’s studio, and a quiet space to consider collaborative artistic and curatorial undertakings. Located in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Ejecta Projects not only offers exhibition and consignment opportunities for artists but also serves as a gesture toward community investment, a place for connection among people who crave an atmosphere of warmth and creativity. The space is conceived as the progeny of a 2015 co-written book and co-curated exhibition titled Ejecta. Ejecta Projects, like its earlier iteration, examines themes of failure and success, parenthood and marriage, materiality and mortality. Exhibitions and endeavors not only reflect these personal and professional preoccupations but also respond to encounters with a broad repertoire of artists and engaged audiences.

Anthony Cervino is an artist-educator who has exhibited his work professionally for over 20 years. He is a Professor of Art at Dickinson College, where he has taught sculpture since 2006. A native of Pennsylvania, Cervino studied art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Towson University before settling in Carlisle, PA. His sculptures have been included in recent exhibitions at The Gallery at Flashpoint in Washington, DC, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, The Arlington Arts Center, the Minneapolis College Of Art & Design, and the Susquehanna Museum of Art, among others.

Shannon Egan received her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MA and Ph.D. in the History of Art from Johns Hopkins University. She currently is Director of the Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College, where she curates exhibitions of contemporary and historical art and teaches courses in art history. She is the author of articles on photographers Edward S. Curtis and Jeff Wall. With Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad, she is the co-editor and co-curator of the forthcoming book and traveling exhibition titled Across the West and Toward the North: Norwegian and American Landscape Photography.