James Crawford: Pile Series

This suite of photographs that document what Jim Crawford has called the “Pile Series", discovered throughout the city, record the presence of piles of various industrial or commercial materials that seem, through Crawford’s discerning eye, to achieve the status of sculpture. No doubt he has positioned these twenty images to both serve as ironic description of the identity of the artist (suggesting perhaps that art challenges perception, enabling it to discern “found objects” or objets trouvés as art, thus emphasizing the prominent part that ideas and concepts play in perception), as well as to call attention to the compelling nature of our landscape, and to create a dialogue that compares art to the supposed randomness of everyday material reality." (Manisto, Glen, Art Detroit Now, Jim Crawford @ Trinosophes, November 16, 2016)