OPEN CALL: Don't Be Absurd!

The Contemporary Art Modern Project invites fiber artists to submit proposals for the 7th edition of our annual exhibition, Women Pulling at The Threads of Social Discourse: Don’t be Absurd, opening October 10, 2025. 

 

The exhibition will explore absurdism, referencing Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Jose Saramago and/or Samuel Beckett. Artists will apply the ideas and concepts in these works to our modern world, through which industry and politics, is still and often dehumanized. Sub-topics include but are not limited to childhood in industrial societies, sexuality, gender, women’s rights, and education. We asked artists to create circular fiber works to symbolize the continuation of hope in our present experience as we strive to overcome a certain sense of nothingness.

 

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, (1915) explores how society can dehumanize an individual, and thus transform them into a sacrifice for society. It also explores how the conformity required to be ‘successful’ becomes a psychological malaise, often resulting in a self-abandonment of individuality for the benefit of another. Albert Camus’ pivotal work, The Stranger (1942), explores a meaningless world wherein nothing holds meaning, not even life; Meursault’s only real action in the work is stimulated by the sun, which drives him to murder. It can be argued that in a self made meaningless world, the presence of The Sun (reason, logic) and the character’s apparent refusal to abandon his nothingness in effect becomes a battle of emotion (or the lack thereof) and logic. In All Men are Mortal (1946), Simone de Beauvoir reveals how when mortality is removed, or even to a sense, superiority, nothing holds value, nothing can be appreciated. This sense of absurdity brought forth from what can only be a position of privilege reflects the distance growing between those who have, are entangled in the having, contrasted against those who disregard materialism. Samuel Beckett, in Waiting for Godot (1948 - 1949), delves into the notion of the Absurd through the idea that humanity is incapable of finding meaning due to inherent philosophical limitations imbedded in the functioning needs of society, where individualism becomes the enemy. Jose Saramago’s Blindness (1985) takes sight away from a civilized world, reduces a population to instinct, only able to regain sight both literally and metaphorically when the population abandons institutional mores of judgement and control. 

 

Artists are required to be familiar with one (or more) of the texts listed above, and respond directly to their respective subject matter. We have included free links to make the material accessible; all rights retained by respective authors, publishers, and host sites.

 

We ask that artists submit a proposal first, detailing how their piece compliments the chosen text, with an accompanying sketch and/or render. Please do not make any pieces before notice of acceptance.

 

Artists are required to explore their response through fiber/textiles, and associated techniques. Artists may use threads, weaving, tapestry, embroidery, tufting, etc. Works can be abstract, figurative, geometric, etc.

 

Artists can propose one or more pieces ranging in size from 12 inches diameter, 18 inches diameter, 24 inches diameter, 30 inches diameter. We will also accept 2 works 40 inches diameter. All works will be pinned in the gallery, so we ask that proposals exclude frames; embroidery hoops, however, are acceptable. 

 

 

Note: For archive.org links, one must create an account. It’s completely free to use with an account; one simply clicks “borrow” to access a book in full, and “return” to finish.

 

Metamorphosis via Project Gutenberg
A Hunger Artist via Kafka Online

 

The Plague (PDF)
The Stranger (PDF)
The Myth of Sisyphus on Archive.org

 

 

Blindness (2008, dir. Fernando Meirelles)

 

SAMUEL BECKETT
Waiting for Godot via Archive.org
Dance First (2023, dir. James Marsh)