Laura McPhee "Desert Chronicle"
Benrubi Gallery
This event has ended.
A solo exhibition of new work by Laura McPhee. "Desert Chronicle" is built upon McPhee's work in 2010-12 documenting landscapes in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. McPhee's images are at once lyrical displays of vast desert regions and complex explorations of our role in their ecological fate.
"Desert Chronicle" will feature thirteen color photographs, in dimensions as great as forty-eight square feet. Made with a large-format view camera, these striking images envelop time, both geologic and human. A serpentine river has cut a deep incision in the land. A gold mine on the edge of the Black Rock Desert has cut a deep incision in the land, exposing its ruddy interior. A still-life from the edge of an alkali flat reveals surprising fragments of human presence -- machine parts, a penny, desert-varnished tin cans, a tiny plastic toy among shards of glass and rust. Collectively, the pictures evoke contemplation of our use of the earth and to what ends -- unintended consequences of humanity's attempts to control and manage nature. A painterly meditation on our material lives, the images depict our paradoxical efforts as we variously protect, alter, and exploit the land.
[Image: Laura McPhee "Former Copper and Turquoise Mine, Lavender Pit, Bisbee, Arizona" (2012) Archival Pigment Ink Print, Size varies with Edition]
Media
Schedule
from March 07, 2013 to April 13, 2013