Working Loose presents
Crystal Clutching
Co-curated by Annika Earley + Em Gift
April 1st – June 13th, 2026
Working Loose: 49 Main Street, Blue Hill, ME 04614
Opening Reception: Friday, April 3rd, 5pm - 7pm
In the mid-1990s, Carl Sagan warned that modern society was drifting toward a second dark age. He argued that as our dependence on technology grew, our understanding of it would diminish and the sheer abundance of information would erode our sense of truth. In The Demon-Haunted World, Sagan imagined a culture that, unable or unwilling to think critically, would retreat into superstition—into demons, humours, and “crystal clutching.” When reasoning falters, he wrote, “the flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.”
Today, that warning feels less prophetic than descriptive. AI-generated slop is promoted as the inevitable future of visual culture; cult remedies circulate as medical fact; truth collapses into opinion, algorithm, or just convenience. Answers are instant, outsourced, and frictionless—whether from a search engine, a feed, or a chatbot—while consumption continues uninterrupted, masking what has quietly disappeared: discernment, skepticism, and shared reality.
Within this landscape, Crystal Clutching invites you to point back to the magic mirror and ask for clarification. Like the legendary amphisbaena—facing forward and backward at once—the works in this exhibition will aim to inhabit a space between past and present, reason and superstition, truth and reality. Reflect upon the historical murk of the dark ages while referencing contemporary anxieties around belief, doubt, and the seductive pull of the fantastical. Ask not what we know, but how we know—what we are willing to believe when the light grows uncertain?
The exhibition features works by Rachel Alexandrou, Jennifer Coates, Mark Dion, Annika Earley, Jenny Ibsen, Shari Mendelson, Lindsay Montgomery, Rebecca Munce, Stacey Rozich, Dana Sherwood and Haley Wood