SARAH CRAWLEY | AT THE SHORELINE
CVAG Summer Residency 2024: June 3 – June 30, 2024
Pinhole Camera Project: June 20 – December 20, 2024
Each summer, the Comox Valley Art Gallery holds a curated residency program to support the creative practices of artists participating in ongoing convergent programming at the gallery. The McLoughlin Gardens Society collaborates with CVAG by making their seaside artist residence available for the gallery to house its visiting artists.
Winnipeg artist Sarah Crawley’s residency continues her creative research + development of pinhole camera based artworks. In 2023, the artist exhibited their work at CVAG with the exhibition as the wind blew: the ground beneath me, at the water’s edge, in its path.
During her time as artist-in-residence, Crawley will facilitate the CVAG Pinhole Camera Project —
a collaborative lens-based art engagement with community that will begin in June and run for several months before it comes to completion.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I work with ideas generated from lived experience using different photographic technologies and materials. Mingling analog and digital processes, and subverting proper photographic techniques, I investigate ideas around identity. My approach invites unintended consequences as I purposely give up control, embracing and encouraging the accidental during both capture and processing.
During my time at the McLoughlin Gardens residence, I will focus on research, experimentation and capture utilizing alternative photography techniques, including but not limited to pinhole photography and lumen printing. I will take advantage of the coastal location of the residence to continue investigating the relationship between nature, water and healing, as part of a larger exploration into vulnerability, loss and grief.
My partner, John, and I are very grateful to the Comox Valley Art Gallery for this amazing opportunity.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Crawley is a photo-based artist whose work explores aspects of memory and identity based on ideas generated from lived experience. Working primarily with analog photography she has also explored combining printmaking – specifically screen-printing, etching and blind embossing – with the photographic image. Her works have been exhibited as large-scale prints, installations and book works. Crawley has mounted numerous solo exhibitions in galleries across Canada including The ODD Gallery (Dawson City, YK), Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (Estevan, SK), Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts (Winnipeg, MB), aceartinc (Winnipeg MB), Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (Brandon, MB), The Photographers Gallery (Saskatoon, SK), Stride Gallery (Calgary, AB) and Gallery Connexion (Fredericton, NB). Her photographic works have been included in many group exhibitions including Subconscious City at The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Latitudes at the Belgrade Cultural Centre, Serbia and Proof (2) at Gallery 44, (Toronto, ON). Her work is held in the City of Winnipeg Public Art Collection, The Province of Manitoba Art Collection, The Government of Canada Global Affairs Department Art Collection, The Walter Phillips Gallery Collection at The Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Visual Art Bank of the Manitoba Arts Council, among others. An active member of the visual art community in Winnipeg, Crawley enjoys sharing her passion for photography through teaching and mentoring and is currently engaged in a community public art project with the South Valour Residents Association through the Winnipeg Arts Council’s WITH ART program.
Crawley acknowledges living on and engaging with Treaty One Territory, the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Red River Métis Nation. The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and John Ervin.
Curated Residency Program – Past Residencies
as the wind blew: the ground beneath me, at the water’s edge, in its path
The McLoughlin Gardens Society
IMAGE: Sarah Crawley, untitled (from the series in its path), lumen print, 2019. Image courtesy of the artist.