Overview

“The American realizes that ‘Progress is God.’ The destiny of the American people is to subdue the continent—to rush over this vast field to the Pacific Ocean... to change darkness into light and confirm the destiny of the human race... Divine task! Immortal mission!”

 

—William Gilpin (1813-1894), explorer, land speculator, politician, and writer

 

Wilding Cran Gallery is pleased to present ...of frontiers and phantoms, an exhibition of quilts, photographs, sculptures, and drawings by Ray Anthony Barrett that deepens his ongoing inquiry into the poetics of the western landscape, the mythology of Manifest Destiny, and the interrelated issues of power, capitalism, and white settler colonialism.

 

Expanding upon his investigation of the relationship between commerce and the American imperial project, Barrett has constructed quilts with materials inextricably linked to the economic history of the United States: calico, cotton, and denim. The near-monochrome works invoke color field painting while vertical bands of fabric in contrasting hues reflect an engagement with syncopation, the sudden interruption of expected patterning present in some African textiles and musical traditions.

 

Sculptural works further explore the frontier as both a physical and conceptual space. In Shell Company (2021), a shell cradling a cluster of wampum with a ball of 24-karat gold at its centre rests atop a piece of green felt reminiscent of a casino table, underscoring the gambling spirit that characterizes established narratives of land speculation. Perched upon a pedestal made of railroad ties, Buffalo Soldier (2022) offers a conceptualization of the railroad as a signifier of both westward

expansion and “order” as defined in an industrialized context.

 

In a critique of existing norms of intelligibility, Barrett has created drawings based on Darby English’s How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness that repeat the words “in total darkness” hundreds of times in graphite on black paper. The arrangement of the text allows one to read it along both the X and Y axes, conjuring the rationality of the modernist grid. The drawings also subvert the convention of black mark-making on a white surface, calling into question the dubious colonial logic of bringing the “light” of reason to “dark” and “uncivilized” communities.

 

Through this body of work, Barrett contends that subduing the continent has been a prolonged act of hubris. Our divine tasks are to reject the false binary of man versus nature and to reorganize our personal and collective destinies around our ecological interdependence.

Installation Views
Works
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Shell Company, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Shell Company, 2021
    Clam shell, wampum, 24 karat gold, plexiglass, felt, plywood
    295 1/2 x 14 x 14 inches
    750.6 x 35.6 x 35.6 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Navy no. 1, 2022
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Navy no. 1, 2022
    Stretched quilt, calico, cotton, denim
    72 x 84 inches
    182.9 x 213.4 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Lavender no. 1, 2022
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Lavender no. 1, 2022
    Stretched quilt, calico, cotton, denim
    72 x 84 inches
    182.9 x 213.4 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Pink no. 1, 2022
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Pink no. 1, 2022
    Stretched quilt, calico, cotton, denim
    72 x 84 inches
    182.9 x 213.4 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Orange no. 1, 2022
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Death Valley Superbloom Quilt, Orange no. 1, 2022
    Stretched quilt, calico, cotton, denim
    72 x 84 inches
    182.9 x 213.4 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Cul-de-sac, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Cul-de-sac, 2021
    C-type print
    36 x 30 in. 91.44 x 76.20 cm.
    Edition 1 of 3 (#1/3)
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Space Heaters, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Space Heaters, 2021
    C-print on dibond
    40 x 53 in. 101.60 x 134.62 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Buffalo Soldier, 2022
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Buffalo Soldier, 2022
    Bronze, buffalo fur, wood, cotton gingham, denim
    57 x 13 x 10 inches
    144.8 x 33 x 25.4 cm.
    (quilt: 46 x 49½ in., 116.84 x 125.73 cm)
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Memento Mori, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Memento Mori, 2021
    Sheep skull
    11 x 8¼ x 5 inches 27.94 x 20.96 x 12.70 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Roost, 2022
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Roost, 2022
    Leather, steel, cement, tourmaline, taxidermy crow
    123 x 26 x 13 inches 312.42 x 66.04 x 33.02 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, A Mile To Mecca, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    A Mile To Mecca, 2021
    C-type print
    36 x 30 in. 91.44 x 76.20 cm.
    Edition 1 of 3 (#1/3)
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Forager, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Forager, 2021
    C-type print
    16 x 20 in. 40.64 x 50.80 cm.
    Edition 1 of 3 (#1/3)
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, GO, AWAY, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    GO, AWAY, 2021
    C-type print
    24 x 16 in. 60.96 x 40.64 cm.
    Edition 2 of 3 (#2/3)
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, In Total Darkness no. 1, 2022
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    In Total Darkness no. 1, 2022
    Graphite on paper
    24 x 18 in. 60.96 x 45.72 cm.
  • Ray Anthony Barrett, Chopping Block, 2021
    Ray Anthony Barrett
    Chopping Block, 2021
    C-type print
    14 x 11 in. 35.56 x 27.94 cm.
    Edition 1 of 3 (#1/3)