RUN TO THE LIGHT! softly embraces the horror movie genre and questions if you are headed toward safety or danger. Do you continue your approach or run in the other direction? This year's TSA open call brings together artists that are in conversation with these questions to guide viewers through doom to the light. Space is made for antagonizing discomfort and prompting viewers to take risks through participation. In this space fear can become joy, the unknown can be toyed with, celebrated, mocked and even adored. 

The sculptural work of Chris Combs employs a wide range of practices to create circuit boards, software, and enclosures for interactive and time-based wood, metal, and found-object sculptures, which embrace and question technology. “Scream into the Void” remains silent until activated by pressing a button that produces a muffled scream, when held induces feelings of powerlessness. 

Those residing in displaced communities have no choice, but to create a blended being of who they were and who they will be. Gabrielle Constantine's combined upbringing in the Armenian Community and restaurant industry has inexplicably informed her material, linguistic, and performative decisions surrounding her sculptures, installations, and gatherings. These works utilize a style of research that is nonhierarchical and envelopes the domestic and viewed as hosts that yearn to build relationships by lending moments of unconventional utility that move past a traditional understanding of looking at art. 

Lise Ellingsen delves into themes of calamity and hysteria through her immersive installation, Hel’s Kitchen. Drawing inspiration from Norse mythology, spirituality, pop culture, surrealism and the hedonistic allure of advertising, Hel’s Kitchen reflects the artist's perspective on feminism and how the right-wing movement promoting TradWives, women confined to the home to please their husbands and produce children, represents one of her worst nightmares.

Jung Min Ghee is a self-taught painter whose work is centered around the spirituality of daoist thought and focuses on expressing ideas through his inner child. A multinational childhood based in both the United States and Korea cemented his unique perspective on the nature of things and exploring other cultures is a fundamental theme in his work and within himself. The words “help” and “them” appear boldly in the painting “Factory Farm” which reflects on the horrible conditions in which pigs are treated.

Masculinity is the theme in Alfredo Travieso’s series “The Sense Extension” which displays  concern in signifying universalities about the portrayal of men in the media. Here gender roles and identity are explored, along with men’s identifying characteristics, sexuality, male puberty and power. 

Collaborators Catelyn Mitchell and Miden Wood create large-scale objects that re-contextualize the spaces they occupy and invite viewers to participate. Holding the belief that disrupting context through surprise and play creates space for genuine, un-obligated self-expression. Their interactive installation “It’s Art” proves their point as viewers who engage are met with an abundance of joy and laughter.