Catalyst Contemporary presents Lifecycles–Mind/Body, a duo multi-media exhibition featuring the works of Se Jong Cho and Bonnie Crawford. The collection of paintings, sculptures, and photographs converge to prompt a conversation on reproductive rights and the connections between the body and mind.
In our current socio-political climate when the previously protected rights of reproductive autonomy are now in an unstable and disappearing position, Cho’s surreal paintings of her menstrual cycles from 2020 prompts conversation and education on the biological processes of the body. Concurrently, Crawford’s “collaborations with worms” sculptures — sculptures made by combining ceramics with materials that have been made or altered by larvae — are a body of work that addresses the birth, reproduction, and death as natural processes of all biological organisms.
In the backroom gallery are Cho’s watercolors and Crawford's photographs that ruminate on the current Western social and linguistic dichotomies such as male|female, nature|human, and art|science. Lifecycles–Mind/Body brings together art, science, and education to address reproductive rights and larger conversations on gender and identity.
Se Jong Cho began painting while pursuing her PhD in Environmental Engineering. Her training as a scientist taught her to become observant and think critically, and she cultivated her brand of creative expression that combines multidisciplinary perspectives.
Bonnie Crawford makes sculptures, drawings, and photographs while considering how care-taking occurs in relation to and in spite of capitalism's devaluation of reproductive labor.
