An abbreviation of retroactive continuity, retcon is a literary and cinematic technique, a new piece of information introduced to the story that alters the interpretation of the previously established narrative. Though it is a word less-commonly used, it is omnipresent—not just in a fictional context, read in a book, or viewed on a screen, but experienced in the world around us. The current climate is an environment where we are constantly absorbing new information (like it or not!), and it is changing the way we see everything—day to day, hour to hour. Our internal database is developing at record speed. What was thought of as commonplace even a few years ago, is being reexamined, and at times by the entire world in unison?
The artists in the exhibition are evaluating, and reevaluating, their personal histories, backgrounds, perceptions, and history as a whole. While in the real world, the constant introduction of facts and options appears erratic, the process that we witness within the works in the exhibition is much more intentional, slower-paced, steady. It is a careful and curious assessment re-moved from the web of media and into meticulously-presented ideas.
Laura Dvorkin, guest curator
M.F.A Thesis Exhibition: Steady/Retcon
May 7–8, 2022
OPENING RECEPTION
May 7, 3– 6 p.m.
Building 407 407 A Colonels Row
Governors Island, New York 10004 United States
