ICU:USA // 5:00pm-9:00pm

Friday, December 5th, 5:00pm-9:00pm

EONTA SPACE

34 Dekalb Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306

120+ images of America in 2025. Our show for Autumn 2025 is ICU/USA, a photographic revue of how the contributors see America in 2025.

In a scattered installation we share images of a country divided,

but also a country united around our core principles: fairness,

inclusion and freedom of speech. America has always been a

‘great’ country, regardless of extremist propaganda, and while

accepting our failings and weaknesses, we need to celebrate our

strengths before darker forces attempt the unthinkable, the

systematic destruction of our basic civil rights, a reversion to a

perverted, parallel version of the country we hold dear.

The old saw, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, by adman Fred R.

Barnard (or newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane), continues to resonate

in our selfie era. For good and for bad. Photos are now presented as

the ultimate truth while simultaneously being used to obfuscate and

mislead. Turns out the adage was invented by Barnard in the 1920’s

to encourage the use of images on street car advertisements.

Barnard claimed the phrase was an ‘ancient’ Chinese proverb. A

reminder that hucksterism is an essential American quality.

ICU/USA therefore packs the punch of 120,000 words, a veritable

long-form read describing how our contributors see America in 2025.

In their own private, interior terms; what they see in public; how they

interact with politics and culture; the show covers racial prejudice,

sexual identity, humor, the quotidian, the nostalgic, the joyful and

many more themes.

In an age where a printed, physical photograph is something of an

anachronism, we see constant evidence of varying ideas about the

American experiment. We are told that photos contain and preserve

our memories and that the loss of them is painful and permanent. But

photos are also disseminated far and wide through social media,

shared, liked, borrowed, stolen and repurposed, deepfaked,

photoshopped and twisted for multiple reasons.

The show is designed to be seen in various ways. As a wall mounted

installation with minimal text signage where the photographs (and

viewers) wander their way through the contributors’ experiences

across the walls.

As a text/title based catalog showing the contributors names, work

and titles mounted separately where all the images can be seen as a

group.

Eonta Space also produced a ten minute video slideshow that can be

seen on youtube.com.

https://youtu.be/FLZ87YVXxWk?si=hv24Q4zcW63mjZ77

Open for the December JC Friday and the following Saturday and

Sunday, ICU/USA is a collection of images that show us who we are NOW!

Accessibility

• Wheelchair Accessible

• Call 973-722-0062 for access

  
  

Contact

Website: eontaspacenj.com Email: eontaspace@gmail.com Phone: 973-722-0062