In her upcoming exhibition of new work at Track 16 Gallery, artist Kathleen Henderson takes on what may be the biggest issue of our crisis-laden times; human folly in the face of extinction. But she does so with a sense of humor. Henderson’s emotive drawings show man bumbling through the world, tripping and fumbling, as the litany of crises mount. Some are trapped, as Narcissus was, stupidly gazing at their own reflections. Others are more literally blinded by the bags they wear over their heads. They stand no chance of even knowing what telltale signs of doom they are missing; sitting ducks. Artemis of Ephesus, a mother goddess and protector of pregnant women, makes an appearance in two drawings. In one she has stepped onto the stage and taken the microphone; could she be our potential heroine? But Artemis cannot save even mothers and their vulnerable children in this world, now too deeply poisoned by man’s unrelenting greed. Henderson never really points the finger in her work. Instead her drawings make us all complicit in the fate that awaits us. Our human folly so evident. Our stupidity laid bare.
