Graft: Intervals and Burrowed Stories
Emilie Crewe

A hermetic woman nests inside of a dilapidated wall. Burrowed in a crevasse filled with a collection of oddities, she systematically handles each object with care and intent. There is no beginning, middle, or end to the narrative; it is a rhythmic and cyclical depiction of the character’s everyday tasks. Based on research into the habits of bowerbirds, and the unique brooding rituals of animals, Graft: Intervals and Burrowed Stories is an iterative story about compulsion, infestation, and habitat.

“Utilizing close-up shots with a narrow depth of field, Crewe’s sculptural video installation resists full resolution, placing emphasis instead on the corporeal response of the viewer. In the video, the artist presents an antihero: a hermit or hoarder. The amorphous figure’s unfixed, unidentifiable presence surfaces and retreats from view within an accumulation of objects.”
-Rebecca Schlossberg, Curatorial Fellow; Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, Illinois

About the Artist 
Emilie Crewe (b. 1987, Quebec City, Canada) is an interdisciplinary artist working in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her work often takes the form of video installation, sound, sculpture and single-channel video. She holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Recent exhibitions include the Governor’s Island Art Fair (New York, NY), the Zhou B. Art Center (Chicago, IL) and the Khyber Institute of Contemporary Art (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Screenings include “The Labor Party: A 2-Minute Film Festival” at the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA), the Chicago Underground Film Festival “Salonathon”, “Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival” (Hawick, Scotland), and “OK.Video FLESH” at the National Gallery of Indonesia.

emiliecrewe.com