Something Else

Curator isn't a title that Dalton Carter is comfortable with, even though he's the organizing force behind this Friday's Spontaneous Generation art and music exhibit at the Next Space gallery.

"I'm not necessarily curating a lot of the work. I picked some artists that might have been interested in it, and it's really up to them to do whatever they want," Carter says, trying to explain why that title is too formal for something he's doing for fun. "I've only seen one piece that's going into it. Most everything else is going to be pretty free-form and spontaneous."

In keeping with the theme of spontaneity, Carter snared one artist, Jay Jackson, to be in the opening after he ran into him walking down the street. Carter's theme for the show is based on a medieval belief that inanimate objects bore animals. But the artists -- who include John Dretzka, Lynus Young, Seth Johnson and Sean Semones, among others -- aren't required to follow any rules. "Some of the stuff may have nothing to do with [the theme], but I don't care," Carter says with a chuckle.

Carter's mellow approach to the exhibit may be related to his evasion of formal art schooling. "Most of the time when I make art, it's not on a canvas and it's not being shown anywhere," Carter says. "If I'm out hiking or something, I'll just pile up some rocks and some wood or something and leave it there. Or some garbage in an alley or whatever. That's kind of how I work."

A week before the show opens, Carter is stacking pieces of interlocking driftwood in neon shades of green, pink, orange and yellow ceiling-high and covering them with glitter. Once he attaches all 15 pieces of the Day-Glo branches, he plans to illuminate them from the inside with black lights. Carter is equally excited about each of the four musical performers: Ashley Miller, Mint Hill, Geriatric Pony Express and American Catastrophe.

Carter looks around the Next Space and surveys the work ahead of him. "My goal is to turn the space into ... " Carter pauses, then says, "Something else."