This Too is a Threshold
Vox Collective Member Exhibition at AUTOMAT
Saturday, November 1, 2025 - Saturday, November 29, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 13, 2025 | 6-9pm | @ AUTOMAT
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
In an attempt to mend the rift generated by the dominant cultural understanding of the hero, the membership of Vox Populi present This Too Is A Threshold, a group exhibition testing the gold weight of the narrative monomyth.*
In a series of emergent works, the collective holds the shiny proto-narrative to the light, counting and litigating the bones sprawled beneath the self indulgent flesh of the cliche. Abandoning promises of eminence and capital, the exhibition explores a more imperative post-individualist topography–where the understanding of myth itself returns to its roots–where it is not understood as something which is singular, fantastical, or untrue, but instead understood as the emergence of inherited and collective truth.
Myths, in their original sense, are about what matters most to us in this world, where we can touch the timeless imagery and archetypes from which the living world arose. What does one heart beat sound like reverberating through the body of an assembly? What form does cross-generational knowing take? What of the rocking cradle? The budding flower? What of the six pallbearers, heavy with their remembering? What of intimacy and dispute, of hurt and repair? What of the largeness of collective liberation? What can we make of departure, or of return? What do we make of all the thresholds and choices in between?
This Too Is A Threshold serves as one half of a collective swap between AUTOMAT Collective and Vox Populi. Both artist-run spaces will be exhibiting the work of their members at each other’s respective gallery spaces in Philadelphia. Vox Populi is an evolving collective of artists dedicated to fostering experimental contemporary art through a non-hierarchical, inclusive, and equitable framework. Since 1988, Vox has served as a critical nexus within the Philadelphia arts ecosystem, presenting exhibitions, public programs, and performances, while remaining responsive to the shifting needs of our community.
*Monomyth: The monomyth, or hero's journey, is a universal narrative template describing a hero's adventure into a supernatural world to achieve a decisive victory and return transformed. Identified by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it's a common pattern in myths and stories across cultures, involving stages like the departure, the initiation, and the return.
ABOUT THE VOX COLLECTIVE
Vox Populi is an evolving collective of artists dedicated to fostering experimental contemporary art through a nonhierarchical, inclusive, and equitable framework. Since 1988, Vox has served as a critical nexus within the Philadelphia arts ecosystem, presenting exhibitions,public programs, and performances, while remaining responsive to the shifting needs of our community.
Featuring:
Aaron Terry
Catia Colagioia
Chenxi Shao
Ella Konefal
Eva Wu
Eve Greensweig
Gregory Donell Parker
Jim Strong
KT Pe Benito
Lane Timothy Speidel
Lea Devon Sorrentino
Melissa Langer
Raúl Romero
