"Untitled II Beverly MA 2016'' (digital print) from “Victoria Crayhon’s show "It Says We're Not Real.'' an exhibition of an ongoing body of photographs and video entitled "Thoughts on Romance From the Road 2001-2017''. The show runs Feb. 10-April 8 at Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence.
See Ms. Ctayhon's video at: http://www.cadetompkins.com/artists/victoria-crayhon/
The gallery says:
“The images are a series of text interactions with historic and abandoned movie marquee and motel signs. As the artist traversed the roadways and interstates of New England, Michigan and other locales during long commutes and trips. These blank slates punctuated the path, causing her to recede into memory and ultimately display fragments of thoughts that might easily disappear but now exist purely as photographs.
“The messages can read as intensely personal “(In This Case the Closure Has Occurred Maybe’’), cautionary (“Approaching Dangerous Point’’) or darkly humorous “(Oh God I Love My Life’’), but all address the private self existing in public, as well as exposure to advertising media as entertainment while driving as its own unique form of existence and consumption within American culture. The proof of the performance in photographic evidence, however, is staged and stark; there are no vehicles, no passersby. Ed Ruscha’s intensely colorful paintings come to mind as a parallel of the meeting of the seemingly mundane: gas stations in the desert and flat purple plains overlaid with phrases and fragments that blur the conventions of language and art.
“Crayhon’s most recent work in the series further complicates the scenario and enriches the experience. This time she interacts with digital theater signs, transferring her message, filming the playback and photographing it simultaneously. Here, a more complete thought reaches a captive audience in the gallery; The world is not stagnant now, cars whiz and jazz from a nearby club sings in the background. ‘’
