Transit / Transition

Our lives are a short commute from birth to death..

Can a ride on a dart rail symbolize life?  You begin at a point of origin, ride the train, and exit to your final destination. You are born, you live and you die. In this way, life can be seen as a transition from the lengthier states that precede and follow our ride.

We live for only a short time. We draw our cards, make our choices and take our chances. Each generation lives about 100 years at most. We coexist and communicate with those of our time. We are affected by the lives and daily actions of others of our time. We belong to our time.

What traces are left behind when we have exited the train. Every generation will pass on some knowledge, experience and wisdom to the next generation that has boarded the train. But, as we become memories and traces moving into the distant past, meaning becomes juggled or lost.

In this series of digital images, Dart Stations and trains serve as backdrops for fictional narratives depicting moments of transition in life.  Stories of breaking up, graduating, winning and losing are depicted in the images. The inevitability of change and our emotional reactions to the transitions we experience in life form the narrative.

The fictional narratives and lives found in the images could be depicting current, past or future events. There are countless parallel variations of the patterns that form our experience.

Do these patterns create sympathetic vibrations that resonate with others who at this moment, are boarding trains leading to their destinations. Are their life experiences that different from our own?

We know that sound can set off sympathetic vibrations. Perhaps art picks up and sets off sympathetic vibrations much like sound.  Our actions strike a chord in others. We feel and interpret. What meanings are understood and what meanings are lost if we are left to interpret from outside the direct experience of the moment.

Is art is a filter, through which we see life?  Everyday, to understand and to create meaning, we use filters such as the newspaper, wikipedia and Myspace. Art becomes the coyote to guide us through life’s transitions.

The work depicts the emotional interactions between people of a time and place. I hope viewers try to reason out the mysteries presented in the dramatic tableaus. The Medieval King, Queen, Magician, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Death, Hermit, the Devil, and the Wheel of Fortune from the Tarot cards are laid out before us. We interpret and create meaning.

Dwayne Carter

An Epson 7600 with Ultrachrome Ink on archival paper has been used to create the 24 x 30" digital prints found in this exhibit. Transit / Transition at the Bath House Cultural Center March 4 - April 4, 2007

Images are composted and drawn using Adobe Photoshop.