Elevation vs. Infatuation by Carey Fountain
Opened October 25, 2020
In Elevation vs. Infatuation, artist Carey Fountain explores a veil-thin division between two kinds of motivations: doing something to truly enrich your spirit versus doing something out of blind love for a lie. A lie that is cleverly masked as truth. A lie that hides in "wokeness.”
Fountain invites the community to this art experience at Vinegar Contemporary by distributing a zine—a printed script that also functions as a flyer and an artwork. Inside those hand-pressed folds are the script to Elevation vs. Infatuation, a music project by Fountain. Those words on the paper—disseminated out into our city, our country, our earth—are a script of some future action or non-action. In Elevation vs. Infatuation, Fountain follows his own script as he gives form to those words: words that need to be spoken, seen, acted, gestured, lived, felt, loved, hated, smelled, tasted, and heard.
Carey Fountain is a visual artist, musician, and cultural producer based in Birmingham, AL. His art practice combines these disciplines hand in hand with the belief that art can inspire change to propel society forward. Fountain likes to explore what he calls “the language in the middle.” He has exhibited nationally including exhibitions and performances at The Study, Los Angeles, CA, Artlanta Gallery, Atlanta, GA, Alabama School of Fine Art, Birmingham, AL and Gallery 905, Selma, AL. He is also the founder of Vibes & Virtues, an experimental art experience and has contributed to the community with various mural projects. Fountain has worked for ArtsRevive in Selma, AL, the Coleman Center of the Arts in York, AL, and currently is the Manager of Public Programs for the Birmingham Museum of Art. Fountain graduated from the University of Alabama in 2014 with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Note: This exhibition took place before Fountain joined Vinegar’s board of directors.