Walt Cassidy

Drawing Down the Moon Exhibition

2013

Reviewed by Nora Spillane

Walt Cassidy has six works currently on view at Vox Populi, one of Philadelphia's hottest galleries. The New York based artist is part of one of their current group exhibitions called Drawing Down the Moon open from October 4^th to the 27^th. This exhibition references mystical realms, occult, dream spaces, and spiritual exploration. Walt Cassidy's five photographs, “Alone and Empty”, “Wet”, “Bound”, “I've Been Thinkin' About You, Baby”, and “Hair, Copper, Frankincense, Candle and Vine” pull the viewer through these themes swiftly and quietly.

Vox Populi was stiflingly on the shows opening night. I stumbled around trying not to think about the crowded rooms and the temperature rising with every word spoken. I could spin around in each space and realize where all pieces were coming from within a moment, but Cassidy's work stopped me and had me forget about that heat. There's a pleasant stillness and cold that his photographs somehow create in the sad void longing between them. I think it is important for them to have been installed together, with a few on one wall, one on the left and one on the right wall. They yearn for each other. You find yourself asking what the objects in each still life could be used for and why they belong as part of the same story. The strange collections of objects are heavy in highlights and deep in color, all set in a dark space. These references to dutch still life paintings only further the elements of darkness, longing, and spirituality or ritual through object.

To catch this fever visit the work of Walt Cassidy. Vox Populi 319 North 11^th Street, 3^rd floor, Philadelphia. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 6pm.