But of course it’s hard to tell

a collaborative exhibition by

Alyson Provax and Serrah Russell

September 4–26, 2021

We are all saying the same things and we know it’s the same but we all still have to say it because it’s therapeutic to process our trauma. We are leaning in to saying the same thing, the repetition, and it being similar but also different. So all of us saying the same thing and knowing that we’re all saying the same thing is also serving to re-connect us to each other, it’s a way of saying that we want to feel known and feel like we can know each other. This is a constrained / limited language, a play with duplicating / mirroring. Here in the post-vaccination, in the time after, as we do familiar things and feel different. Just start, just begin and also, where do we go from here

Closer and more vulnerable.

But of course it’s hard to tell features new works by Portland artist Alyson Provax and Seattle artist Serrah Russell. This collective body of work was made in parallel (across a distance, without meeting) during the middle of 2021. Both artists developed themes of engaging with the unknown and the hidden, fascinated by the vulnerability inherent in reaching out to another (particularly after a time apart) and not knowing how you will be received. These works are an attempt at connection but also a questioning of it. They recall the anxiety that we may not be able to be truly known, and contain a diaristic reflection on feelings of emptiness, trying to remember how to bring the interior life out. 

Works on display will include solo and collaborative pieces by Provax and Russell, as well as works started by each but added to in transit as they traveled between the two artists via the US Postal Service. Mailing the works became an exercise in the deliberate ceding of control as creases, marks, and imprints affected and became part of the work. Both the content and the process mirrored the experiences of the artists in this time as they considered how to re-engage with each other and the greater world. 

This show was supported in part by a grant by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and Alyson and Serrah thank them for their generosity and support.

Click here to sign up for a mailed experiment from Serrah Russell and Alyson Provax as part of "But of course it's hard to tell" supported in part by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council.