Acrophobia at Main Street

Artists: Michele Ayoub, Connor Crawford, Sebbe Elbourne, Laura Hinrichsmeyer, Zoe Imani Sharpe

Exhibition title: Acrophobia

Venue: Main Street, Toronto, Canada

Date: August 19 – September 23, 2017

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Main Street, Toronto

Main Street is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition Acrophobia, a collection of new works by Michele Ayoub, Connor Crawford, Sebbe Elbourne, Laura Hinrichsmeyer and Zoe Imani Sharpe.

In Acrophobia the psychological symptoms of urbanism are given form through the tropes of dystopian fiction.

In Connor Crawford’s Damned Outlet Sprite, a skeleton creeps out of an outlet to remind you of the electrical grid you owe your life to. Sebbe Elbourne’s installation Watch Out manifests a fragmented, dysphoric body-horror. Two small paintings by Laura Hinrichsmeyer, Alitoto Solemini and ANKSE; Drop Out, function like windows into the artist’s psyche—intimate meditations on contemporary anxiety.

In Michele Ayoub’s video Infinite Obsession, prosaic clips from the now-obsolete social media platform Vine are collected, categorized, and stitched together to create an eerie, looping daily routine. And, in a new poem, Zoe Imani Sharpe offers an oblique study on trauma, gentrification, and the history of public housing in Canada.

The work featured in Acrophobia explores how increased density in the real world—alongside ever tightening online networks—has affected the individual’s psychological architecture.