Cristín Leach finds that the exhibition ‘A Matter of Time’ at the Crawford Art Gallery moves from the political to the personal, and the local to the global, without skipping a beat
‘A Matter of Time’ opens with two wall quotes that set the tone and intention for this thoughtfully curated group show, and neither is from an artist. First, Madeleine Albright, former Democratic US Secretary of State, and the first woman to hold that job, on freedom of speech: ‘It took me quite a long time to develop a voice and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.’ The second is from George Woodcock’s 1944 anarchist essay ‘The Tyranny of the Clock’. On human existence under capitalism, he writes, ‘the clock represents an element of mechanical tyranny in the lives of modern men more potent than any individual exploiter or any other machine’. Beginning with the words of an American politician and a Canadian philosopher, both of whom lived into their eighties, offers a solid hint at how we are expected to encounter this selection of sixty artworks by twenty-five Irish and international artists. This is a show about time and perspectives. It is also an exhibition of art about politics, climate change, nationhood, postcolonialism, identity and grief. It explores equalities and inequalities, all the while addressing the concept of time as an essential element of how power plays out in the world and how its passage relates to our experiences as humans.
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