TEEN MACHINE - Statement

Vorderzimmer’s upcoming show, TEEN MACHINE (opening October 16), is an outlier for us. Usually we feature artists via solo shows; and usually those artists are adults (Duh!…..aDUH!lts) - people who have been developing their art for decades.

TEEN MACHINE grew - quite literally - out of the pandemic. The original concept was a Kid Salon, showing art by children ages 9 to 11. The opening was scheduled for a Sunday in March 2020. Two days before, we had to give in to circumstances and cancel the show. Whatever was going around was too unknowably dangerous to justify hosting a gathering of people.

Two and a half years later, those kids have grown. They are now sliding, crashing, flying, falling, dancing and jumping into their teen years.

Organizing a show of art by people in their early teens is something different entirely than a “Kid Salon”. 13- & 14-year-olds seem constantly on the cusp —- between parents still overseeing a lot of their actions, and taking on responsibilities themselves; between early childhood’s easy creativity, and a teenager’s questioning self-consciousness; between knowing what they want, and having no idea
what they want; between simple earnestness and joy, and feelings that are a bit more complicated.

In all honesty, the show’s title could be “It’s a Lot Like Herding Teens”. But this would convey a humor geared from parents towards parents, not towards the teen creators themselves; so it was quickly put to the side.

TEEN MACHINE it is. A young teenager remains a machina obscura. You put in different fuels and materials; then you sit back and watch, at the ready if needed, but giving the mysterious machine lots of space, space to whirl and buzz and do its thing. You never really know WHAT that engine is cooking up. We hope to just get a glimpse into these brilliant evolving minds, and have a good time doing it.

TEEN ON!