Colin Foster with EGT
Enigmatic Group Therapy

Organized by Jonah Porter

May 18 – June 17, 2018
Opening Reception May 18, 6-9pm

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New theories are running around the atmosphere: all we need is the courage to face them.

E1. Conscious theory/practice - Internal development and security
G2. Shared Synthetic Ecstasies - External relationships with affinity groups
T3. Structural Looseness – Self determination and no elemental end

Destroy precision tips
Give living space for what lacks form TRANSITIONS
Form outlawships and sabotage the foundations of fucked up American life

Organization is the seed/germ/essence of movement

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In the summer of 1966, a small group of landscape architects gathered at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and issued a declaration of concern regarding the future of the American environment. Calling for an increased awareness of earth’s ecology, they exhorted, “those who plan for the future must understand natural resources and processes.”

In a critique of the original declaration at a retrospective summit organized by the Landscape Architecture Foundation in 2016, Gina Ford wrote, “truly sustainable development requires careful orchestration of complex layers of technical expertise, as well as the inclusion of many distinct voices and constituencies.”

Baltimore based Enigmatic Group Therapy is responding to this praxis model—to cultivate diverse socio-ecological ecosystems with a multiplicity of voices—by tying their perception of the current ecological moment to a wider conditioning and potential of the role of the artist.

Oriented around environmental pragmatism, the members of Enigmatic Group Therapy sluice the detritus of anthropogenic overconsumption through zealous utilitarianism. Distributing individual member’s expertise in service of a broader exigency, Enigmatic Group Therapy repurposes objects like a Land Rover’s discarded barometer to read the real-time pressure of a room, or renovating the remains of a cement encrusted wheelbarrow into high design furniture.

These simultaneously functional and poetic gestures are intended not only to reconfigure our relationship to the refuse buckets of our time but also to refute their distinction from the supposedly separate natural environment.

This is an undertaking without claim to a monolithic solution. Each day, we depend on the knowledge and care of others to comprehend the contours of our world. This is not a radical idea but rather a celebration of the possibility of how, when we are attuned to our interrelationships with others, we might all make our paths softer.

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Enigmatic Group Therapy is a fluctuating group of artists organized by Colin Foster on the occasion of this exhibition. Its members include, but are not limited to:

Carley Callis (b. 1993, Baltimore, MD)

Colin Foster (b. 1990, Massena, NY)

Sam Hanson (b. 1986, Olney, MD)

Lucia M Maher-Tatar (b. 1993, Albuquerque NM)

Minho Nukem (b. 1989, Daegu, Korea)

Melvin Thomas (b. 1993, Baltimore, MD)

Elana Webb (b. 1990, Milwaukee, WI)

Lucas Yasunaga Haroldsen (b.1991, Fukuoka, Japan)

Jonah Porter (b.1992) is Interstate Project’s 2018 Curatorial Fellow. He is an artist and curator based in New York. His work has been exhibited at Material Art Fair (CDMX), American Medium (BK), and Littman and White Galleries (PDX). He holds a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.