Kristen Scholfield-Sweet’s show at The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery invites viewers to contemplate how we like the underworld whilst showing images of our, mostly natural, world. Like, where we live, now. Wait. What is this? Where is the underworld? Here? Is there something above us? Is there a difference between the afterlife and the underworld?

How do You Like the Underworld? asks for active participation from viewers. Scholfield-Sweet’s work does not provide something finished, that has its own set form, that is simply a picture of something for us to recognize. This work needs someone looking at it to create a momentary completion. The next time the same person looks at the same piece, it’s different. Or is the person different? Or both?

Some pieces offer sparklingly familiar subjects and images, only to disorient our recognition through context and a partner poem. I know what that is, but what does it mean? Other pieces transform depending on the distance they’re viewed from, developing a depth of imagery as one advances. The liminal spaces between realism, abstraction, and imagination run this show. If we think we understand, does that mean we are standing… under… something?

Nature begets nurture begets nature, naturally. Who are we to know where we are, or how to get to somewhere else? There are guides. There are hints. There are magics. Some of us know all the “make believe” is actually running the show from below, or is it above? To move by questions is a journey outward, underneath, and through. There are rhythms that carry us, carry them, that open doorways and create shadows.

Every question is accompanied by a poem exploding it out to the language universe, exposing multiple uncertain journeys. A mobile of animal and spirit guides hangs like a curtain blessing as we pass. Skins, sticks, and rattles too, a sunset, and an altar. There IS a way out, yes, and it leads back to the beginning. Haha! The cycle of life.

Some shows just ask for writing, and this is one of them. Come out to the Literary Friday, THIS Friday, September 12, from 7-9pm at the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery, for a fun and meaningful writing workshop! You’ll be able spend quality time with this deeply evocative show. The gallery is open for its regular hours all weekend.