10/21/2025
Kim Crawford responds to Billy Bert Young’s painting “Koan and On,” which is currently on view at Museum London as part of the solo exhibition, Billy Bert Young: Cloudburst:
“Koan and On” reminds with some cruelty and grace that time is never one thing; there is a give and take in the same moment. When I stood before this piece, I felt caught by time. The rhythm of the lines pulled my eyes in. But it is a detail, the pocket watch, that arrests me fully. It feels like the watch’s surface holds the sound of the ticking of each second passing. I immediately felt a deep connection with this rendered object, and the longer I looked, the more apparent it felt. I perceived dementia is a physical form: the slow death of the mind where memories fray, where patterns that are familiar dissolve, and where what once seemed whole becomes fragile and uncertain. I perceived echoes of thought; the slipping away of names, faces, places, and clarity.
But in this sorrow there is a tenderness both in loss and beauty. You can’t choose between them.
🕥🕚🕐🕕🕦🕣🕟🕤🕡🕘🕔🕞
Read Kim’s essay about “Koan and On” on SATELLiTE: In Orbit (link in bio). Kim Crawford is a retired hairstylist of 40 years and is currently a second year Fine Art student at Fanshawe College. She has discovered a passion for written art as well as printmaking and sculpture.
Billy Bert Young: Cloudburst is on view at until February 15, 2026. Billy will lead Paper Jam: Collage and Records, a creative experience at ML, on November 6.
Western and Fanshawe students! Interested in writing about art? Submit to SATELLiTE: In Orbit. More info can be found on our website.
Image: Billy Bert Young, Koan and On (detail), 2023, acrylic on wood panel, Collection of Laura Dinner and Richard Rooney, Toronto, Ontario. Photo Credit: Alex Walker
