Zorawar Sidhu & Rob Swainston: Doomscrolling

11 Mai - 1 Dezember 2024 Vermont

Doomscrolling is an exhibition of woodblock prints by the New York-based artists Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston. An addictive compulsion, doomscrolling is described as the act of spending an unintentionally excessive amount of time actively seeking out and reading negative or depressing news online. In this series of 18 woodblock prints, Sidhu and Swainston culled imagery from the mainstream media to depict 18 moments between 24 May 2020 and 6 January 2021. The date of each work is tied to now-iconic images and specific events, and altogether form a portrait of the United States during the time of Covid, Black Lives Matter protests, the events leading up to the 2020 election and the infamous day of the insurrection at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
INFORMATION

Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston, January 6, 2021

Like many of us, Sidhu and Swainston experienced life in 2020, a tumultuous period of isolation and political and social unrest, by consuming images and news on their smartphones. “We were just like everyone else, obsessed by consuming images of it. […] The show really comes out of our own ‘doomscrolling’ […] It was an experience of terror through viewing the media of it all.”
Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston, May 26, 7 PM, 2020-2021

As the basis for their prints, Sidhu and Swainston used plywood boards collected from the storefronts of shops and institutions throughout New York City that had been shuttered in 2020 during the pandemic quarantine. “All of a sudden, plywood went up on buildings around the city and then I realized the potential of it: Letting something that happened in 2020 be carved onto the plywood used to cover up Manhattan.” Sidhu and Swainston used these distressed plywood boards, covered with graffiti, and weathered by the elements as the basis for their prints. The oldest printmaking technique and means of mass communication, woodblock prints have a historical legacy of being used to champion the voice of the people, fueling anti-authoritarian movements of social change for centuries. Each of the 18 days in the series is represented as a montage of images. In addition to contemporary images, Sidhu and Swainston also incorporate art historical references in their compositions such as rays of light from Albrecht Dürer, hands from Käthe Kollwitz and heavy shadows from Edvard Munch.
Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston, July 4, 2020-2021

The compilation of pictures and text overlaying each other create the effect of scrolling through a computer screen or mobile device. January 6 (2021) stacks images of police and the mob of pro-Trump rioters storming the US Capitol in Washington during insurrection. May 26, 7 PM (2020-2021) presents images of the first Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd. July 4 (2020-2021) depicts images of protesters and supporters of the monument to Confederate Civil War General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia before its removal together with a view of Mount Rushmore where Donald Trump delivers a speech. Each work is a visual and ideological pastiche of conflicting views, physical violence, and meanings. In the context of the 2024 United States presidential election, the way that we look at and remember these images continues to evolve. Rather than being fixed in the past, Sidhu and Swainston’s recirculation of these powerful images prompt our ongoing consideration and assessment of important issues in this country that remain unresolved.
Zorawar Sidhu & Rob Swainston's "Doomscrolling". First presented at Petzel, New York from 6 January - 12 February 2022. Video production and editing: Arx Pictures (Asya and Shaheer)
Installation Views
Artworks
In Conversation With Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston

Filmed on 27 July 2024. All Doomscrolling artworks: © Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston. Camera, sound and editing: Jeff Diehl. Installation views by Jeffrey Nintzel and Tara Wray, © Hall Art Foundation
Press
- Press
  Seven Days
  2020 Visions: 'Doomscrolling' at the Hall Art Foundation September 18, 2024
  Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston's series of woodblock prints brings 2020 into focus with bright colors and complex layers of imagery from that momentous year.
- Press
  Okemo Valley Magazine
  Modern, Memorable and Moving: Art at Hall Juli 1, 2024
  Works by artists Levine, Kruger and printmakers Sidhu and Swainston fill Hall Art Foundation's galleries.
Installation views: Jeffrey Nintzel