Matthew Craven's 2013 Solo Show at DCKT Contemporary Examines Ancient Artifacts Through Collage

Matthew Craven presented his solo exhibition 'Oblivious Path' at DCKT Contemporary from September 7 to October 20, 2013. The show featured nine works combining scholarly photographs of ancient artifacts with geometric drawings on blank paper or found book illustrations. Works like 'Oblivion I (Horizon)' and 'Arrangement I (Unclassified)' arranged prehistoric tools, statuary, and architectural fragments in gridded compositions. The gallery walls were painted orange for the exhibition. Craven's approach draws parallels to Joseph Campbell's 1949 book 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces,' which identified universal narrative structures across cultures. The artist's method involves collaging images from diverse regions including ancient Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Mesoamerica, Greece, and Africa. Some pieces like 'Stare' incorporate hand-drawn chevron patterns alongside photographic elements, creating tension between formal beauty and historical specificity. The exhibition's press release acknowledged that 'our view of history is deeply flawed.' Concurrently, Craven participated in the group show 'Totem' at Asya Geisberg Gallery, where his piece 'Summer (Totem)' featured intricate symmetrical patterns with photographic elements. The works raise questions about ethnographic differences being flattened into formal amalgamations, reducing artifacts to free-floating signifiers of antiquity.