Freedom in Collaboration

Thursday, March 2nd, 2023 // Features, March/April 2023

Alejandra Cuadra + Ashley Page, ‘Letter to the Ocean, 2023,’ video still (on view in the Sidewalk Video Gallery)

Multidisciplinary artists Ashley Page and Alejandra Cuadra both say they share a brain. The metaphor rings true in their work: many of the artists’ sculptures and installations look as if they belong in a shared space. Their pieces, vulnerable and bold, often appear to have sprouted from similar lines of inquiry or emerged out of a common desire to reclaim (a place; a concept; a body). And in one show, at least, they have. On view through April 2 at Fountain Street Gallery in Boston, Page and Cuadra’s “Earthly Bound” is a celebration of radical care, deep collaboration and stories yet to be told.

Cuadra and Page first met in Portland, Maine, while completing Warren Public Engagement Fellowships at Maine College of Art and Design. The two immediately connected within and beyond the studio, co-curating two exhibitions, organizing several workshops and helping to found “Resilience Week” at the college, an annual program series centering Black and brown artists and exploring themes of culture, identity and social change.

Alongside the artists’ collaboration as friends, women, women of color and, as Page noted, “people, first and foremost,” several strong themes weave a common thread throughout the exhibition. As artists who primarily work in sculpture and installation, the use and creation of space is a clear starting point and aim. Works like “Small Pieces of a Larger Whole,” “Entrapment” and “How Do I Release My Voice,” act as portals. So, too, does the exhibition in its entirety — as proud tellers of their own stories, Page and Cuadra offer entry points into larger explorations of freedom and belonging.

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