Exhibition Profile: Anna Bush Crews

What: …trashed…
Who: Anna Bush Crews
Where: Newport Art Arts

When: 2 - 12 June

Below, Anna describes the different elements of her exhibition:

…HAUNTED HOUSE…(1999-2010)

Photographs grouped into five formation pieces of four, six or nine colour prints are placed together, slightly floating; the stillness of individual images hides the reality of the actions that time and time again led to the shrouded evidence of aggressive destruction. Movement within the five formation pieces creates a visual complexity that point to the repetitive acts of desperation and depression, over a period of time, in what was once a grand domestic space perched on the cliff in Bristol.  Movement within a stillness, the remains of the domestic, chilled. This piece is dedicated to my father, Judson Crews, June 30, 1917 –May 17,2010.  Judson was a poet, and social worker, among other things.

…FRIENDS…(2008-10)
Marks of intention and marks by accident, strength applied with force, breaks and shatters the target, depending on the aim and impact…the teen spirit comes through; the happy face replaced by a sad face. Teens gather, to form their groups, away from home, in abandoned places and territories.  To grow up.…to escape the domestic…  “Home is the place you leave”…Some never come back. This piece is dedicated to my niece, Iris McLoughlin, Oct.8, 1989-Jan 25,2010.  The digital photos that make up…FRIENDS… were shot in Taos, New Mexico, USA.

The drugs corporations will not be happy until Americans are all on hundreds of dollars of prescription drugs each month for various complaints, some brought on by the addictive junk food diet, tobacco, alcohol.  Other culprits of addiction keep us sitting instead of active.  All are short term fixes for the stresses and conflicts brought on by the culture of persuasion to be part of the great consumer greed.  Is it any wonder the young react to the hypocrisy?


THANK YOU MR. HASELGROVE (2010)

This acts as a link within the shop/gallery, and in the materiality of the photograph, abstracted and 3 dimensional, takes us back to another time, recognizable though revealed only partially.  Of an evening, after a day of work, supper served by Mrs., Mr. would devote himself to his hobby, photography.  Over the years he captured the family life, travels, the school, all the interests he had.  With curiosity and a good eye, he used various cameras, papers.  These full plate fiber-based prints are curled up—an outdated technology— and offer only slivers of those unknown times and places. 

Another work, Around 3, (2003) related, includes photos collected from various sources, intentionally combined in a random way, created not as a story, but becoming a novel of atmosphere we project onto the time—the surface hints at the underlying.

The past is not a smooth surface
The surface of time is not smooth
The time of suffering is not a surface

Anne Carson

Also in the exhibition:
Homage to Louise Bourgeoise, (2010), a 3-D collaboration with Sohrab Crews, objets trouves, balloons, disco ball.

USK EDDY, video work running for 59 minutes. The ebb tide flow produces the current that is pushing debris around; the surface carries logs, branches, some with distinctive marks— yellow leaves like flags, twigs, trees, tires, rubbish bags, plastic bottles floating, and who knows what all caught up in the encircling movement of the eddy. The river level goes down, as the tide pulls the water out to sea. The accompaniment is traffic roar and birdsong. Linear time, demanded by train schedules, has impacted the whole culture, anxious about time; life itself has evolved a linear way of living, tied to the job, the demands, the cocktail hour, the news. 

Gallery reading from:
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness,  Erich Fromm