Report by Paula Antolini
May 6, 2017 1:49PM EDT
Photo: Artist Beth Houghtaling working on her Installation, “Jonestown: What Flavor Are You Drinking.”
Jonestown: What Flavor Are You Drinking? Intriguing Trailer Box Project Gallery Exhibit Opens Today
Trailer Box Project will open its 2017 season with an installation by Brookfield artist Beth Houghtaling. The exhibition asks viewers to question authority and confront their deep-seeded beliefs.
The Jonestown: What Flavor Are You Drinking? exhibit will be celebrated with an opening reception at 5:00pm on Saturday, May 6th and will run through June 3rd.
JonesTown: What Flavor Are You Drinking?
Installation By Beth Houghtaling
May 6, – June 3, 2017
Opening Reception May 6, 2017 – 5:00PM – 7:00PM
“Though the 1978 Jonestown mass murder was decades ago, the exhibit is incredibly timely,” explains Dana Walker, Trailer Box Project Director. “In today’s social media-driven society, it’s easy to find oneself living in an echo chamber of one’s own beliefs. Beneath the vivid colors and repetition in Houghtaling’s brilliant installation lies a significant question: how susceptible are we to indoctrination, and how do we protect ourselves?”
In Jonestown: What Flavor are You Drinking? Houghtaling utilizes mixed media including resin, stamp carvings, and Flavor Aid packets to resolve her spiritually and physically abusive past through the lens of the Jonestown murders.
“I had the idea of making something out of Flavor Aid packets and the stamp carving, so I bought 70 packets of Strawberry Flavor Aid on the internet. Once I made that first piece, the floodgates opened and the art has not stopped spewing yet,” says Houghtaling. “But it wasn’t until early October 2016, as I was looking at the photos of Jonestown residents in life to use in an art piece, that I realized my Jonestown Art was my way of expressing the emotions from my own spiritual abuse, which only seems to make my art more powerful.”
Artist Beth Houghtaling, a Danbury native, is a mother and respiratory therapist. She is currently studying Holistic and Integrated Health at Western Connecticut State University and plans to pursue a career in art therapy.
Trailer Box Project, a project space and gallery in Danbury, Connecticut is dedicated to assisting groundbreaking artists in sharing their concepts with the community. Members of the general public are invited to attend the opening reception on Saturday, May 6th from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at Trailer Box Project, 15 Great Pasture Rd, Unit 15 in Danbury.
For more information, please contact the gallery at 203.797.0230.
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