Grays Bleed Red With The Hands Of Progress
Grays Bleed Red With the Hands of Progress is a site-specific installation and performance situated along the shoreline of Utah Lake, Utah, USA. These canvases, rendered with iron—a mineral ubiquitous in Utah’s soil and urban development—serve as a nuanced exploration of the intersection between the natural world and human-built environments.
Amidst this collection, one painting floats atop Utah Lake’s surface, echoing the architectural designs of the “Utah Lake Restoration Project.” This specific artwork, as it gently dissolves into the lake’s waters, symbolically underscores the historical and contemporary impacts of human intervention upon both the lake and its surrounding lands. The act of dissolution, as driven by the lake’s dynamic waves, illustrates the perpetual cycle of change and regeneration, transforming the painting’s frame and washing the canvas clean.
In this dynamic interaction, Utah Lake becomes an unexpected collaborator in the artistic process, with entropy serving as its chosen medium. This installation, at its core, serves as a profound reflection on the boundary between human and natural influence. It encapsulates the profound beauty and inherent conflicts that emerge when these two forces inevitably converge, inviting viewers to contemplate the intricate interplay between our constructed landscapes and the unyielding, yet ever-adaptive, forces of nature.
Portrait of a Lake
Portrait of a Lake is an ongoing photographic series that serves as a testament to the current state of the Great Salt Lake, the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere; home to millions. This lake is dying and the entire ecological system is on the brink of an environmental collapse. Through Portrait of a Lake, I aim to delay, encapsulate, and contemplate this decay.
As an artist, I stand as a witness to the lake's life and death. Recognizing its significance as a microcosm, reflecting the broader extinction crisis on our planet. Through the work, I seek to delay the seemingly inevitable mortality facing the lake and encourage contemplation about our connection to the land.
Portrait of a Lake fundamentally acknowledges an intrinsic connection between humanity and our environment, highlighting that we are an integral part of the landscape, akin to the rocks and trees. By acknowledging ourselves as essential components of a much larger ecosystem and a manifestation of nature, what changes? In asking this, we are then able to question whose deaths we are witness to. Is this not, after all, a small practice in self-love and empathy?
Semblance
Semblance is a photographic series that joins digital photography with mixed-media sculpture to explore the entropy of the natural world and the effects humans have on it. The work displays, or rather does not display, five animal carcasses that were discarded or dumped at the Black Hill Wildlife Management Area near Ephraim, Utah.
By physically editing and removing any evidence of what remains of each body, Semblance suggests a significance to the negative space within the photographs; gaps where carcasses once lay, lifeless, but not void of life. Inevitably the land takes hold, covers, alters, and fills in. The earth serves as a placeholder for the dead as it references the inescapable transformation of death and decay to life and renewal.
As a result, the work lives in both the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional representation of the land, each translating and referencing the land with their unique characteristics. The photographs are a form of evidence, proving the carcasses’ existence. On the other hand, the grasses and earth act as camouflage, both hiding and eventually reclaiming that existence.
Removing the photographic representation of the animal carcasses in the photographs also censors their presence, referencing a common attitude towards these animals in life, their carcasses in death, and the environment as a whole. In doing so, Semblance draws attention to our conscious and unconscious act of censoring the ugly, damaged, and spoiled parts of our reality.
Ultimately, Semblance is an investigation of human awareness of the natural world and reflects on the ways in which humans consider the interconnectedness between us and our natural environment – or not.
In Conjunction
Drawing on the rich heritage of the historic Relief Society Granary building, both as a structure and as a place of communal gathering, In Conjunction uses elements of the structure as a medium to explore what it means to exist within a community, as well as the impact one can have upon their community. In Conjunction features a compilation of stop-motion animation works created by individuals throughout the community using oolite sand, which is then formatted by the artist to be projected onto the exterior of the Granary Arts building.
Granary Arts is a Local Arts Agency, which is a designation through the Utah Division of Arts and Museums and a partnership with Ephraim City. We serve as an anchor for creative activity, providing access to diverse forms of art that facilitate public participation. We provide opportunities for artists, curators, makers, students, and educators to foster their creative vision. We also provide arts education to schools and the community through a variety of programs, workshops, public art projects, and other cultural events. Granary Arts is dedicated to placemaking by fostering the relationship between artists and the community through exhibitions and education.
Part of the Rhizome
Part of the Rhizome is an ongoing exploration that delves into the intimate connection between humanity and the natural world. It is a celebration of what it means to embrace the land as an extension of ourselves and to become intertwined with its beauty. It acts as a reminder that we are not separate from nature but an extension of it. In doing so, Rhizomatic Rhythms awakens our innate, physical connection with the Earth, promoting a deeper understanding of our place within the broader spectrum of ecology.
