Craig van den Bosch

March 6 – 29, 2025

Opening/First Thursday Art Walk: March 6, 5-8 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 15, 3pm

van den Bosch’s work recontextualizes Lincoln’s phrase “Our Better Angels” from his First Inaugural Address connecting it to today’s political polarization.

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely, they will be, by the better angels of our nature”.

Originally found in two of Shakespeare’s works and a Dickens novel, Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seaward suggested the addition to help a country on the edge of a civil war think about pursuing unity over division. Although it suggests and supports a middle-path approach, some in the northern states found the speech too conciliatory and those in the southern states considered it a threat of war. Have we ever resolved these deep divisions? Even though the topics of conflict have changed, polarization has continued to build. Can we find a middle path that acknowledges the deep fears and concerns that lie at the heart of our tense and vitriolic discourse? Can we listen objectively?