If there is no geographic territory on earth left to discover, are explorers obsolete?
In the twenty-first century, the farthest reaches of the earth have been surveyed, mapped, and photographed. One could argue that our planet is now in a near-perpetual state of overexposure. With no “new” lands left to discover and conquer, is the archetype of the explorer still relevant?
During the mid-nineteenth century, artists’ depictions played influential roles in romanticizing the American landscape, presenting it as pregnant with possibility. Painters, photographers, writers, and poets established and perpetuated the foundational narratives of America, emphasizing the notion of landscape not only as a natural phenomenon but as an intellectual and cultural endeavor.
Early explorers of the continent—male European American adventurers and documentarians—generated the myth that they were the first to discover the landscape of the American West. Now that discovery eludes women and men equally, exploration has expanded to the domain of anyone intrepid enough to go beyond the beaten path, the “No Entry” sign, and even the “Toxic Waste” warning.
Perhaps for the first time in America’s history, female artists are active participants in shaping the public’s perceptions and generating narratives about land. Under the ethos of the masculine American explorer-adventurer, women had never truly had access to the powerful narratives associated with the longtime and enduring imperialistic tradition of discovery.
The American idea of expedition, removed from the familiar context of masculine achievement and self-aggrandizing discovery, finds new life in the hands of the twelve women artist-adventurers in The New Explorers. How do these artists move beyond the legacy of manifest destiny and imperialism, beyond the hyper-beautiful, near-fantastical representations of landscape that characterized the works of artists such as Ansel Adams and Albert Bierstadt and make meaning in the present day American landscape?
As American culture slowly begins to let go of outdated mythologies—such as the ideal of true nature as pristine, the antidote for the ills of civilization—there is space, as well as a need, to forge new meaning. The artists I spoke to for my book engage the land and what resides within it, highlighting relationship and interconnectivity as fresh approaches to the landscape—notions that supersede the classically American ideology and heroics of rugged individualism.
Not one of these twelve intrepid artists suffers from the delusion that she is “discovering” the land in which she creates her art, yet each one is rising to the challenge to shape new meaning in land that has already been defined. The artists use photography, modern experiential tourism, and video to offer fresh perspectives that demonstrate there is still an abundance of opportunity for discovery in the twenty-first century landscape.