With an opening celebration set for Thursday, November 8 from 6-8 pm, Dichotomies – a solo show of works by Carol Crawford – is set to enthrall visitors to Atlantic Gallery, (548 W 28th St Suite 540). Dichotomies is on view Nov 4-24, and features new works by the artist working across photography, print-making and drawing. Combining materials in order to evoke our rapidly changing political realities, Crawford’s show opens new dimensions and pathways of understanding the current climate of terrorism and extremism surrounding us. These must-see works form a nexxus of critical examinations charting the pathways of human resilience amidst ongoing conflict and suffering.
An interdisciplinary artist working across a variety of mediums, Crawford’s body of work takes assumes a lens of social critique in Dichotomies. Questioning how we as humans are preserving our cultural legacy, works incorporate layers of printmaking and photography to probe the layers of history and memory embedded within our society. While Crawford is considering these subjects, the artist makes great strides not to document these issues in a clinical, journalistic sense. Rather, the artist strives to evoke the emotions and psychological toll of our current sociopolitical moment. Crawford imbues her work with these charged experiences of refugees charting a new, unknown future, miles away from their homes, in an uncertain world of fear and confusion.
The works on view create a visual relationship to one another through the Atlantic gallery space, tracing artist’s steps as she follows in the path of generations of migrants. Refugees fleeing famine, war, and genocide view one another’s faces across the gallery, taking in and reflecting the ubiquitous, unending social strife determining the course of human history. While not all of her works on view overtly reference current events, one work that does is Ode to Palmyra. In this work, Crawford evokes the moment that ISIL destroyed this site in a UNESCO-branded “war crime” in 2016. While the violent act was a means of suppressing human history and destroying a centuries-old structure, Crawford shows flowers blooming at the site. A hopeful glimpse of strength in the midst of adversity, and a thoughtful and nuanced perspective on the human condition, permeates Crawford’s practice on view in Dichotomies.
More information on the exhibit can be found on the artist’s website.
