Changes In Perspective: Barbara Crawford’s Pyramid Installation
By Caleb Palmer
I had the pleasure of sitting with Barbara Crawford, one of Southern Virginia University’s art professors. Having a tenured career in artistry and education, Professor Crawford’s resume is incredible. The interview she graciously accepted to be a part of was about her recent trip to Santa Stefano Quisquina in Italy this past summer to install and exhibit a project she’s been working on since 2017. She continues to work on this project even now.
The Beginning of the Pyramid Installations
So, we need to jump back six years. It’s 2017, and Professor Crawford is in Venice, Italy. She is on this trip doing incredible installations daily — sometimes more than one installation per day. These installations seem to be the starting point for her most recent pyramid installation. During this trip, she is mindful of what this art means to her: strands of mylar painted in three colors are hung and displayed in courtyards, sidewalks, and more.
The three colors represent “the land, the people, and the government [of Italy].”
After this productive trip to Venice, Professor Crawford does an artist residency in Paris. She used the same painted mylar strips from Venice but cut, reshaped, and repainted them to fit her narrative during her Paris residency. A proud environmentalist, Professor Crawford stresses the importance of the recyclability that these pieces have.
Influences Worldwide: From the High Arctic to the Republic of Malta
In 2018 following her Paris residency Professor Crawford treks to the High Arctic. Here she learns and creates with other artists on a ship as they cruise by the northernmost inhabited island in the world. It was this trip that brought about the Women Artists In The Arctic Foundation.
“This exhibition investigates the uniqueness of women’s art about the Arctic and aims to see if there is a different way — a feminine way — of investigating our moral relationship to nature and an ecosystem as unique and challenging as that of the Arctic,”
Crawford says on their website. These experiences shed light on her insights and inspiration for what ultimately became her pyramid installation.
In the following years, Crawford goes on to install more of her painted mylar installations. It was during a trip to Gozo Island in the Republic of Malta that she tells me the pyramids became a symbol of the past present, and future, and that we must find a balance. She also discovers an interesting idea from an aerial view of her pyramid installations there, that
“someone else’s point of view and change of perspective can change the way you look at yourself, in a positive way.”
Back to Italy for Installations
The journey then moves to Sicily, Italy for a week of installations. Following that week, another trip was taken to Asisi, Italy for more installations.
By this point, the three colors of the pyramids represent “the sea, the sky, and the air.”
The third color can also be meant to represent the Earth but that is dependent on where in the world the installation is taking place.
Professor Crawford’s journey now takes us to Teatro Andromeda. Located in Santo Stefano Quisquina, Teatro Andromeda overlooks a gorgeous range of Italian mountains. Being a cultural institution, it fits one of Professor Crawford’s three tenets of where she gifts pieces. Those being,
“hospitals, schools, and cultural institutions. In hopes that it will heal, teach, and inspire.”
For that reason, Teatro Andromeda makes the perfect home for this installation.
During the day of the installation itself, Crawford and her team were trialed with rains and poor weather. This lasted all afternoon until the rains and clouds cleared to show a beautiful golden hour and basked the installation in the sun.
However, despite this picture-perfect moment, this is not the end of this project. “I’ve got other plans and I will report on them when they’re finished,” Crawford told me excitedly. Currently, in her normal fashion of changing perspectives, she is working on a new project with a new medium for Homeward Bound STEMM. It is new, she says, but Professor Crawford also says that she “likes the challenges.” As well as,
“Don’t get comfortable in your art.”
Details are limited for this project for now; however, a month is left until its deadline. A year or more in the making, this project seems to be one that will garner excitement and attention. She closed talking about this project by saying,
“Life is art, and it matters how you live it.”
Crawford’s Three Artists to Know
To finish the interview, the question had to be asked. Which artists does Professor Crawford think everyone has to get to know and why? Her insightful responses carry applicable daily values.
The first one is Michelangelo, for the reason that “God drove everything.” She speaks about Michelangelo with an impressed adoration of his work and abilities. Known for creating the statue of David and painting the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo is thought to have work that was divinely inspired. Along with the insight to let God drive everything she also said to “accept any challenge, like Michelangelo, and go beyond it. Push yourself to go beyond.”
The second one was Massacio. Massacio is regarded as the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance and who may not have been as good a painter as Michelangelo but was chosen by Crawford because he “tells stories with humility, and that you don’t have to be the world’s best artist to tell a story.” Anyone is allowed their voice to share regardless of their ability to share it, this a touching thought from a seasoned veteran to any artist at any level.
The third is a familiar name to Southern Virginia University: Cy Twombly. Cy Twombly taught and lived here in Buena Vista in the early years of this school’s life and this connection to Professor Crawford is a personal one, as she was asked to be his assistant in a piece they did for the Louvre. She picked Cy because he “followed his own path and changed his perspective.”
This narrative seems to follow Professor Crawford, embracing change and letting it work on you is good life practice and habit. In short, these three artists were chosen due to their ability to create art but also because of the value they present. Artist or not, there is something to be taken from each of them.
Embrace Your Creativity
All in all, it seems as though these projects have been successful for Professor Crawford. She communicated multiple points throughout the conversation that will allow anyone to become a better version of themselves. Simple things like being open-minded, embracing change, and searching for opportunities. Take it from a woman who is unapologetically herself, embrace yourself and your creativity. Let yourself grow in and express it, but also to “be prepared, you never know,” she says to close out.
