Curator’s Statement:

Haven’t We Met?

These photographs possess a dreamlike, other-worldly sensibility. In dreams, where they begin and end, and what takes place, is often imperceptible. There is an element of peculiarity and also beauty. But as in dreams, and in waking life, circumstances and people shift, appear and disappear in an instant.

We don’t know these people or places, though they could easily be characters who play in any of our lives. Some of the realities are found, some are constructed. The ambiguous nature of the photographs makes them unrecognizable or foreign, but in many ways there is a relatability that implies we may have all been in these places with these figures before.

The more specific imagery is peppered with slivers of moments and action invoking fear, nostalgia, thoughts around memory, and an alternate world that the human mind may be incapable of interpreting.

Including the work of: Harlan Crichton, Alexa Cushing, Amy Fink, Ross Kiah, Vanessa Leroy, Jaclyn Lowe, Caterina Maina, Kevin Moore, Evan Perkins, Kendall Pestana, Tavon Taylor, and Ronghao Zhang.

By Ben Carroll, Curator

This online exhibition was featured on our Instagram, @GriffinMuseum.

Ben Carroll is a photographer based in Boston. He is the recipient of a residency from Arteles Creative Center in Hämeenkyrö, Finland where he will spend the month of January. Rooted in ideas of perception, memory and emotionality, Ben’s work centers on domestic life with his husband of 17 years and the impact of mental illness. He was a finalist for the City of Boston’s Fay Chandler Emerging Artist Award, and received the Jury’s Choice Award at the Small Stones Festival of the Arts in Grafton, MA. In 2020, Ben will earn his B.F.A. in photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston.