★★★★☆
There is something thrillingly peculiar about the perspective in Shuvinai Ashoona’s drawings. There’s no obvious horizon, no real recession, no sure point to start from. It’s almost as if you’re standing on one end of an ice floe as the far end tips away, sending you sliding. A scene of teenage boys on sledges has all the stability of an avalanche. A panorama of sleighs drawn by huskies seems to be seen from three or four directions at once: a tern’s-eye view, a low, water-line vantage, a far, frieze-like frontal approach and the musher’s line of sight over the muscular bums of the dogs. A port is stacked with red boats, one atop the other like builder’s bricks.
Untitled, 2013
COURTESY OF FORT GANSEVOORT, NEW YORK
More intriguing still is a drawing