Opening reception: Friday, March 7, 2025 from 5PM – 8PM
Artist talk and demo: Saturday, March 8 at 1PM
Exhibition run: March 7 – April 17, 2025
Free and open to the public
Martha Street Studio is pleased to present as the wind blew: the ground beneath me / at the water’s edge / in its path, a solo exhibition by Sarah Crawley (MB)
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as the wind blew: the ground beneath me / at the water’s edge / in its path captures the artist Sarah Crawley in the tender vulnerability of mourning, documenting the physical trials of performances leading up to, and following the death of Crawley’s mother. Through uncomfortable and challenging rituals of time-based performances conducted in isolation among nature, Crawley captures raw grief and the pain of endurance through profound loss. Captured by pinhole photography, video and lumen-printing, Crawley explores the nature of mourning and of ritual in remembering and honouring loved ones.
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Artist Statement:
I work with ideas generated from lived experience using different photographic technologies and materials. I mingle analog and digital processes, often subverting proper photographic techniques, in my current investigations into vulnerability, loss and grief. My approach invites unintended consequences as I purposely give up control, embracing and encouraging the accidental during both capture and processing.
In my practice I often create a structure or methodology in which to explore an idea, creating a set of rules that I either follow or break. This process frequently involves ritualistic behavior and functions within an understanding of ritual as mental and physical strategies that create access to knowledge, and emphasize the relationship between doing and meaning.
The works in as the wind blew: the ground beneath me / at the water’s edge / in its path come from three bodies of prints and a video that I created in response to my mother’s passing. All were made in nature: in a forest or at a shoreline. Making 45 minute-long exposures of myself, vulnerable and lying on the forest floor with pinhole cameras suspended in the trees above me; making 30 minute-long pinhole exposures of myself lying, sitting and standing in freezing cold water along the shoreline; and making over 200 lumen prints with natural objects at the shoreline were some of the rituals – essentially time-based performances conducted in isolation in nature – I enacted to make these bodies of work in response to the pain and grief of losing my mother.
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Bio:
Sarah Crawley works with ideas generated from lived experience using different photographic technologies and materials; she stubbornly clings to analog film and alternative photography techniques while also embracing digital processes. Her recent investigations explored vulnerability and personal loss. Crawley has exhibited large-scale prints, installations, book-works and video works across Canada in solo and group shows as well as internationally; her work is held in several public collections including the Banff Centre for the Arts, the City of Winnipeg, the Province of Manitoba and the Canadian Government. Crawley enjoys sharing her passion for photography through teaching and mentoring. She acknowledges living on and engaging with Treaty One Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Anishininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis Nation.
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Hours, Location, Accessibility:
Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10AM – 5PM
*closed Saturdays of long weekends
Martha Street Studio is located at 11 Martha Street. A loading zone is located on the street at the front of the building. Martha Street Studio is an accessible space with a lift and two accessible gender-neutral washrooms located on the second floor.