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Epochal Void 

Epochal Void presents Aegis, a body of large- scale, mixed-media work that explores society’s problematic relationship between protection and control. The price of admission is often submission to a dominant umbrella entity - the government, the bank, the media, and the institutions of marriage, religion, and family. We trade our independence for security, our agency for stability. As with all of EV’s work, there exists a tension between order and chaos, two mutually-dependent binaries that intersect visually on the same material plane. 

The word epochal describes a highly significant and influential moment in time, one capable of ushering in a new age. The void is a space without form. It exists between emptiness and content, a state of pure potential. The name Epochal Void comes from a dream. It expresses an ideal relationship between time and space that does not identify with a prescribed identity, and thus, may move freely, always in flux, constantly becoming. 

Epochal Void, alias Noelle Suzanne Bárce, is a mixed-media artist and curator who lives and works in the Alberta district of Portland, Oregon.  With fine art printmaking and ink illustration as a point of departure, EV creates large-scale, conceptual drawings and relief paintings that explore ideas of impermanence, betweenness and social & spiritual bondage. Her process is a gesture of freedom, of liberation from the constraint of measurement, definition and expectation. In 2015, EV founded Trust Art Collective, an independent arts organization who produces multidisciplinary group shows and creative events with rotating contributors in the Portland area.  Trust seeks to engage emerging artists with each other and the surrounding community, and to encourage creativity and collaboration across cultural, economic and geographical divides. Trust is currently looking for both traditional andunconventional spaces to house future projects for one- to four-week exhibitions in 2018-19.  Please visit trustcollective.net for details! Other notes on Aegis: 

 

•from Latin, Zeus’ shield ; an armor plate that protects the chest; kindly endorsement and guidance; 

•“under someone’s aegis” means doing something under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable or benevolent source; 

•the skin of a great serpent, who was slain/overcome, and worn by Athena, and Aix, daughter of Helios, in Greek mythology; controlling or conditioning influence. 

1. Means or method of defending. Syn: defense, ammunition, armor, buckler, cover, guard, protection, safeguard, screen, security, guard, shield, ward, wall. Related: arm, armament, munitions, weapon, weaponry; fastness, fort, fortress, palisade, stronghold. “Under the aegis of the law” 

2. The financial support and general guidance for an undertaking. Syn: auspice, backing, patronage, sponsorship. Related: bankrolling, endowment, financing, funding, subsidy; encouragement, fosterage, aid, assistance, help. “A medical study done under the aegis of a pharmaceutical company” 

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