Lucy Katz

I have been thinking a lot about the in-betweens lately. Between the cuts of a movie, the lines in a novel. Those bits of time between major plot points, I suppose, where media transcends time and space for the sake of good storytelling. Think about it: we never see Audrey Hepburn brushing her teeth or James Bond grocery shopping. Movies and television shows often leave out so many moments, doomed to be forgotten in the abyss of the in-between. As a member of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s Teen Council, we took this concept to a larger scale and sought to illuminate and celebrate the in-betweens of life. Our exhibition embodies the common human experience of standing on the threshold between the before and after—that time in the margins that does not move the plot orour lives forward. After all, on the precipice of some great unknown, we all have that moment where we take a step back to ask ourselves, “Where do I go from here?”.

From the artists’ depictions of their in-betweens, various sub-themes came forth. Some pieces, such as Lina Wu’s Growth (2022) and Saj Baldwin’s Hoodie, (2022) for example, focus on culture and how the artists feel trapped under the heavy weight of society’s negative perceptions of their racial identities. Others like Brandon Sun’s Inner Child (2022) encapsulate the loss of and longing for childhood and simpler times. Then, there are some pieces like Jackie Neumann’s The Search For the Phantom Limb (2022) and Zei Carrasco’s Reflection and Duality (2022) that represent a life-changing medical diagnosis that altered the course of the artists’ lives. Through these sub-themes, we at Teen Council hoped to showcase the commonality in all our in-betweens to ultimately create a sense of camaraderie and belonging. Whatever our middle may be, we are never alone.

In a society that consumes media that purposefully leaves out the unglamorous in-betweens of life, it becomes easy to feel like something is wrong. Where Do We Go From Here? sprang forth from the desire to not only shed light on these in-between moments, but to depict them as something beautiful and natural. We hope that through the representation of various takes on the theme, the viewer leaves with a sense of community. After all, we all have periods of indecision in life,