New Exhibition, Captured Earth, Opens May 24 at MoCP
Meghann Riepenhoff, "Ecotone #285 (Bryant Park, NY 12.15.17, Mixed Precipitation of Freezing Rain and Snow)," 2017"Captured Earth" presents works by artists who create works in photography and installation that use elements from nature to explore place, ecology and the material and mystical qualities of the land. Depictions range from site-specific performances, including Tarrah Krajnak’s documentations of her nature-centered rituals using rocks and plant material, and Alan Cohen’s walking meditations in various landscapes.
Some artists use natural elements to create experimental process-based works, such as Jeremy Bolen’s prints produced from film developed in a polluted river or Barbara Crane’s photographs of tree bark that she gathered at her Michigan cabin retreat. Others attempt to convey things so confounding that they cannot be contained in an image, such as Penelope Umbrico’s "8,146,774 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 9/10/10," that presents an assemblage of photographs of sunsets from one day found on a photo sharing website to underscore the universal human attraction to capture the sun’s essence.
Collectively, the exhibition shows ways artists grapple with creating visual language to express their connection to the earth and its magnitude.
The exhibition features work by Karl Blossfeldt, Jeremy Bolen, Alan Cohen, Antonia Contro with sound design by Lou Mallozzi, Barbara Crane, Odette England, Whit Forrester, Bertha E. Jaques, Dakota Mace, Robert Mapplethorpe, Byung-Hun Min, Liza Nguyen, Tarrah Krajnak, Martha Madigan, John Opera, Eliot Porter, Meghann Riepenhoff, Rachel Sussman and Penelope Umbrico.
Curator Kristin Taylor states: "The majority of the works in this exhibition are pulled from the MoCP permanent collection of over 17,000 objects. The show highlights many experimental, camera-less works in our collection by artists who push the edges of the documentary capacity of photography to offer nuanced perspectives on ways to restore human connection to nature. Their works underscore the importance of cultivating a tangible relationship with the land as a vital response to today's environmental challenges.”