We Did The Best We Could With The Knowledge We Had
“We Did the Best We Could With the Knowledge We Had” is a more than a literal illustration of a glib mantra. It is a collection of image-icons that are searching for places of unreduced complexity we can use to focus our attention on contemplating uncertainty. The works in the show, titles included, are attempts to shake free of the isolation of the past, and damn just get moving forward. Ultimately, for me I want the work to serve as an aid in restoring our humanity (and our humor) against the media-distended flow of time that seems so desperately to goad our self-criticism to such a frenzy that stagnate in the granular trauma, anxiety, conflict, and disconnection rife in the digital era.
—Eron Rauch
Starting as a DIY zine maker, admittedly-terrible experimental musician, DJ, and fan of all things geeky, Eron’s conflicted and often troubling experiences at the periphery of cultural have become the raw materials of his art. His projects explore the tangled and hidden intersections of fandom, American image culture, photographic technology, video games, art history, mental health, and the urban landscape. Eron received his M.F.A. in Photography and Media from the California Institute of the Arts and his B.F.A. from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Based in Los Angeles, amongst showing at galleries, curating, and designing album covers, Eron is also a regular essayist on the intersection of art and video games. work has been featured in ZAM and Killscreen in America, WASD and Video Game Tourism in Austria, and Heterotopias in the UK. More of his projects can be found at www.eronrauch.com.
—M. Earl Williams
M. Earl received a M.F.A. in Photography and a M.A. in Studio Arts from the University of Iowa. He also received a B.F.A. in Photography at the University of Oregon. His work explores the comical side of the tragic as this act is paralleled by human coping in the digital age. His work is internationally shown with recent cities including Los Angeles, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Denver, and Phoenix. Currently he resides in Oregon where he is faculty in the art and visual communication departments at Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College. More of his projects can be found at www.mearlwilliams.com.
The opening reception for We Did the Best We Could With the Knowledge We Had will be on Friday, May 25th from 6-9pm. Open gallery hours will be on Saturdays, May 26th and June 1st from 1-4 pm.
