Working Loose presents
𝑪𝒓𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈
Co-curated by Annika Earley + Em Gift
April 1st – June 13th, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, April 3rd 5pm - 7pm
In the mid-1990s, Carl Sagan warned that modern society was drifting toward a second dark age. He argued that as our dependence on technology grew, our understanding of it would diminish and the sheer abundance of information would erode our sense of truth. In The Demon-Haunted World, Sagan imagined a culture that, unable or unwilling to think critically, would retreat into superstition—into demons, humours, and “crystal clutching.” When reasoning falters, he wrote, “the flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.”
Today, that warning feels less prophetic than descriptive. AI-generated slop is promoted as the inevitable future of visual culture; cult remedies circulate as medical fact; truth collapses into opinion, algorithm, or just convenience. Answers are instant, outsourced, and frictionless—whether from a search engine, a feed, or a chatbot—while consumption continues uninterrupted, masking what has quietly disappeared: discernment, skepticism, and shared reality.
Within this landscape, the eleven artists in 𝑪𝒓𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 point back to the magic mirror to ask for clarification. Like the mythic amphisbaena—facing forward and backward at once—the works in this exhibition inhabit a space containing past and present, reason and superstition, truth and fable.
The exhibition features works by
@annikaearley @danasherwoodstudio @haleywoodtextiles @jennifercoates666 @jennyib @lindsay_s_montgomery @markdionstudio @giantdaughter @rmunce @sharimendelson and
@staceyrozich
𝑪𝒓𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 reflects upon the historical murk of the dark ages while refracting contemporary anxieties around belief, doubt, and the seductive pull of the fantastical. In doing so, these artists ask not what we know, but how we know, and what we are willing to believe when the light grows uncertain?
