| Cold contact evangelism requires a leap of faith. It is, by definition, a method of making oneself vulnerable in the hope that a faith-based connection will occur between two strangers. Those who practice cold contact evangelism are ministers who successfully share the gospel with strangers. For those gifted in this mode of outreach, cold contact has proven to be a viable and important method to win lost souls for Christ. In some ways, it is analogous to “cold calling"—the practice of selecting a phone number from a list of thousands in an attempt to make a connection. |  |
The Inner Workings of Cold Contact – Curator Joshua Altman
Cold contact evangelism requires a leap of faith. It is, by definition, a method of making oneself vulnerable in the hope that a faith-based connection will occur between two strangers. Those who practice cold contact evangelism are ministers who successfully share the gospel with strangers. For those gifted in this mode of outreach, cold contact has proven to be a viable and important method to win lost souls for Christ. In some ways, it is analogous to “cold calling"—the practice of selecting a phone number from a list of thousands in an attempt to make a connection.
The exhibition entitled “The Inner Workings of Cold Contact” addresses these leaps of faith and our inherent reluctance to trust and react to the unknown. Individual works—the majority of which are centered both in current and early 20th century political events—openly attempt to share their narratives with today’s somewhat reluctant viewers.
The artists featured in the exhibition investigate cultural decay and personal loss by using both low-tech methods of application, as evidenced in the “hand work” of Xenobia Bailey, alongside pieces that utilize 21st century technologies and special effect productions, as in the videos of Mathilde ter Heijne. Where Bailey recounts an old African American slavery tale through the realization of, and her self-insertion in, the Sistah Paradise tent, ter Heijne reenacts the tragic media scenario of today’s female suicide bomber.
Indeed, some of the works specifically illustrate this lack of trust and loss of innocence. Scott Hug’s Bored by 9/11, for example, not only focuses on our obsession with the tabloid media, but questions the veracity of any “media tragedy” by combining texts and images from disparate and supposedly “objective” sources. Similarly, Ted Riederer’s Static Age installation subverts the tried and true DIY aesthetic of punk rock by incorporating various literary references.
If Cold Contact is a leap of faith, then the exhibit “The Inner Workings of Cold Contact” prepares us for this leap, even as it questions the premises upon which such an endeavor is made.
