Christopher Payne @ Benrubi Gallery

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Christopher Payne @ Benrubi Gallery

February 6th, 2016 by fstop

Christopher Payne: Asylum
February 11 – March 26, 2016

Opening reception: February 11, 2016 6 – 8pm

Asylum reminds us of the pre-pharmaceutical era of psychiatric treatment, when the mentally ill were shunted out of public view in vast, village-like facilities, complete with movie theaters, hairdressing salons, bowling alleys and vegetable gardens. But although many of the buildings are the worse for wear, they seem less like prisons than mansions, as if architectural rigor could soothe a troubled mind. There is a palpable tension between the orderly spaces and the suffering and confusion of the patients who once lived in them, a melancholy that builds to tragedy as one contemplates images of empty coffins and pre-numbered grave markers and shelf after shelf of unclaimed cremains.

Benrubi Gallery 521 West 26th Street, Floor #2 | New York City | New York | 10001

Location: New York, New York City, United States Type:

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