FREIGHT GALLERY
is pleased to present
Thomas Drymon
THE ARTIST IS NOT
Sunday, August 4, 4-6 PM
Elevators are social spaces. When we use an elevator for brief moments, we share this space with strangers coming and going in their day to day lives or alone. When you step into an elevator, you become acutely aware of your surroundings, those with you on the short ride up or down, the way your body fills the space, and awkward attempts to cut the silence.
In earlier days, elevators operators ushered people to their destinations. These lift operators could make the ride more pleasant with small talk, helping you forget the confinement you’re experiencing. Later, when we took charge of elevators ourselves, MUZAK was introduced to fill the space with comforting sounds and distractions. Today, some elevators have video monitors to keep you entertained on your short journey.
These notions, the sense of being you experience in an elevator, the sense of your physical self, and audio sounds meant to soothe, formed the basis for my exploration of being present.
Of course, Marina Abramovic may have mastered the idea of being present with her own performance piece, but she didn’t do it in a freight elevator. She asked a select few to be with her in an institutional setting and with an audience no less. THE ARTIST IS NOT is decidedly about each of you, individually, and is best experienced alone.
To create the sound pieces, many one-minute recordings were made over the course of six months. I chose one minute because it is possible to make it to the 124th floor in an elevator in the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, in around that amount of time (barring any stops). These one-minute recordings were compiled into 10-minute compositions that are thematic in nature.
One minute does not seem a long amount of time—until you sit recording for that duration or sit listening for that long.
Over the past six months, I drew conclusions from my own attempts at being in a world of distractions—social media being the worst offender: I had found myself in a continual state of distraction or disruption, less likely to focus on one thing at a time. And recognized that intent and discipline are required to regain our sense of being in the world and to find peace and also purpose to change things for ourselves and others. -TD
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Thomas Drymon is an artist and curator living in Washington, DC. Since 2010, he has curated numerous exhibitions in galleries and exhibition spaces and in his own art spaces (harmon art lab and doris-mae). He has shown his own work in group and solo exhibitions since the early 2000s. He has also collaborated on performance pieces, serving as director and visual and audio content creator.
In 2023, he collaborated with Jennifer Restak and the National Edgar Allen Poe Theater to create a stage interpretation of Tennessee Williams’ short story The Eye That Saw Death. The Eye was presented at the 2023 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival to rave reviews. Prior to that, Drymon helped Restak realize an interpretation of her solo performance piece, Traces, where he served as collaborator, video and set designer, and director.
In 2016, he participated in the DC Arts Center curatorial initiative, serving as a mentor to Martina Dodd. In this role, he developed an exhibition of his own, Sip and Paint Van Gogh’s A Starry Night, featuring the work of 30 DC artists and designed to examine the perceived value and commodification of Van Gogh’s life and his painting A Starry Night. Drymon then served as a mentor to Dodd as she developed her own exhibition at DCAC, providing guidance and assistance when needed.
In 2010, he co-founded harmon art lab (HAL), an art space located on 14th Street NW, where he curated and exhibited contemporary work by artists from the greater metro DC area. In 2011, he operated the same space as doris-mae, which shared a similar mission as HAL and served as a curatorial launch pad for many of Drymon’s ideas. At doris-mae, Drymon paired artists for exhibitions to create a thematic or conceptual framework for ideas he wished to explore.
Prior to running the art spaces, Drymon curated exhibitions locally under the auspices of Thomas Drymon Selects and in conjunction with Mid City Artists.
He was founder and publisher of spoonfed, a queer arts journal published from 1995-2000 and distributed locally and nationally to wide acclaim.
Since 2016, he has taken a step back from art-making and curation to achieve a greater perspective on the nature and purpose of art in 21st century America and in Washington, DC in particular. While he has been driven to create and show the work of others, he has remained content with his position on the outside of the art world, enjoying the opportunities to pursue unique ideas and to show the work of compelling artists to the DC metropolitan community.
www.drymondesign.com
@thomasdrymon
FREIGHT GALLERY
2414 Douglas Street, NE
Washington, DC 20018
There is plenty of on-street parking. Please text (202) 276-5430 if you need parking accommodations.
Enter on the side of the building through the loading dock.
*Please note: the exhibition is on view and open to the public for the duration of the 2 hour reception only.
www.freightgallery.com
@freightgallerydc
Photo credit: Thomas Drymon
