Curatorial
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Over Look / Under Foot: Katie Hargrave / Meredith Lynn
The New Gallery, Nov. 2 - Dec. 10, 2020 |
exhibition catalogue
exhibition essay by: Veronica Kavass Gallery Guide
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Over Look/Under Foot is a multimedia exhibition that explores the historic, cultural and environmental impacts of public land. Using tents, vinyl and projected imagery, Hargrave and Lynn investigate what it means to be tent campers and national parks enthusiasts that spend a lot of time in the company of Airstreams, Winnebagos and Jaycos. Appreciative of the RV for making a kind of relationship to nature possible, they also grapple with this relationship on lands that the federal government set aside to be preserved as wild. Hargrave and Lynn described their work this way: “We have seen our fellow campers set up potted plants, satellite dishes, and full multi-course meals, in the middle of what we hope to be wilderness. This comfort and accessibility is in opposition to romantic visions of national parks and some approaches to conservation. “As nature writer Edward Abbey put it in Desert Solitaire, ‘You can’t see anything from a car,’” the artists continued. “There is a value judgment implicit in this statement. Abbey and others equate a certain connection to nature with spirituality, purity, and a unique kind of enlightenment, but that sort of experience in the outdoors deliberately excludes most park-goers. Using a state with a wide variety of public lands as a springboard, we explore all five Utah National Parks – Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef – and consider the complexities of a relationship to landscape that is heavily mediated by vehicles, cameras and our own nostalgia.” Hargrave and Lynn are artists and educators who work collaboratively to explore the historic, cultural, and environmental impacts of public land. Their work has been shown at the Wiregrass Museum of Art (Dothan, Alabama), House Guest Gallery (Louisville, Kentucky), and has been published by Walls Divide Press. Together they have been artists in residence at Signal Fire (Portland, Oregon).
Hargrave is based in Chattanooga and has also had exhibitions at The Front (New Orleans, Louisiana), Neon Heater (Finley, Ohio) and the Wienberg/Newton Gallery (Chicago). She has been an artist in residence at Epicenter (Green River, Utah), Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts (Raybun Gap, Geogia), and the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, Vermont). www.katiehargrave.com Lynn is based in Tallahassee, Florida. Her solo work has recently been shown at the Morris Graves Museum of Art (Eureka, California), Miami University of Ohio, and the Alexander Brest Gallery at Jacksonville University. She has been artist in residence at the Jentel Foundation (Sheridan, Wyoming), the Kimmel Harding Nelson (Nebraska City, Nebraska), and the Vermont Studio Center. Hargrave and Lynn met at the University of Iowa, where they both earned Master of Fine Arts degrees. www.meredithlauralynn.com |