And the crowd rushed together, trying to keep warm..
1977, 2009, 2013
Interface Gallery
2013
Throughout her career, Escott has been exploring what it means to bear witness to the anthropocene and one of the greatest periods of global change. Continuing with this theme in her solo show at Interface Gallery, Escott presents works that both subtly and overtly evoke the unfulfilled utopic visions of the 1960’s and 70s: the show's title is a line taken from a pop song released in 1970. The song, like Escott’s work, alludes to both a hope for its time and a sober awareness of the history of humanity and the force of evolution.
Works in this show take a look at consumer culture and the tropes of advertising while ultimately, underscoring a sense of both the fragility and futility of the human condition. Through a combination of drawings, sculpture, photographs, videos, and text, “And the Crowd Had Rushed Together, Trying to Keep Warm,” evokes an ideal that, while we watch it commodified before us, we still long for… and continues to elude us.