Artwork:
Traveling up Spirit Lake Highway near the Mt. St. Helens monument boundary in Washington state, trees grow thick, lush and straight. But this is not a healthy forest. In terms of diversity, it is hardly a forest at all. The land is owned by the Weyerhaeuser Corporation, and used as a "Tree Farm". After the 1980 eruption, the St. Helens Monument was created. The remaining area outside the boundary, still owned by Weyerhaeuser, was replanted with just three commercially valuable species of tree. They are planted closely together to encourage straight growth. Forty years since replanting, the trees are maturing and harvest operations are underway, clearcutting large swaths across the mountains. They will be replanted, and the cycle will continue.
Artist Statement:
In 2016, geologists officially agreed the Earth had entered a new Epoch in its evolutionary age. Termed the Anthropocene, it is defined as human-influenced, where our activity has caused irreversible changes to oceans, land, and air. Our new earth age is the starting point for this body of work that explores vast human-altered landscapes. I am concerned and curious how repercussions from our expanding world need for Agriculture, Energy, and Water, impact our planet and ultimately us.
I investigate places in the American West where the natural ecosystem has been altered or destroyed to provide for our burgeoning populations. In each location, I was both dazzled and disturbed by the scope of these transformations. What was revealed I found compelling - strangely alien but completely human. By allowing human intervention to speak over the landscape itself in my images, I imagine a new landscape, more of its Age, that expresses dilemmas faced when considering exploitation or preservation.
$850
