Work

Oldest Living Things in the World 2004-2014

Following in the tradition of the Western naturalist explorer, Sussman travels all over the world to photograph non-human organisms that are more than 2,000 years old. Unlike her male predecessors, Sussman takes a “deep time” perspective that is not constrained by hierarchical notions of the human species as the apex of a “natural” world order.

The Last Iceberg Series 2006-2012

A series of portraits of disappearing Icebergs in the Antarctic, these photographs of Icebergs look very different than the iconic images we are familiar with: why?

Outerland 1998

For more than a decade, Davies has documented herself as the fictitious explorer of vast empty landscapes throughout the world. In the series of self-portraits, Davies’ gender is concealed in a HAZMAT suit. She employs strange tools to conduct “experiments” that often appear to result in failure.

America Ponds 2010

America Ponds is an alternative audio tour that takes place in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in Southern Illinois. The “interpretive” tour presents the complex history a former military site that is now defined by the government as a natural landscape.

Anthropogenic Aquascapes 2009-2010

Anthropogenic Aquascapes is a series of videos about complex water delivery systems that visually represent the history of cooperative ownership of land and resources. “Jefferson’s Monuments” is a video of the controversial dams along the Klamath River.

Marking Deep Time Studio:
Signage for Sites of U.S. Underground Nuclear Tests 2008

Marking Deep Time Studio, Signage for Sites of U.S. Underground Nuclear Test Sites proposes to collaborate with the Office of Legacy Management to (re) design and (re) install markers at nuclear test sites, many of which are on public land and adjacent to or within National Forests—spaces commonly misperceived as unmanaged “wilderness.”

This is the Public Domain 2003

This Is the Public Domain is a web-based endeavor launched by artist Amy Balkin, who bought a piece of land 125 miles from Los Angeles near Mohave.
Instead of developing she attempts to give it back to the public in the form of an International Commons. Her effort to create a “counter space” of public access disrupts the sacrosanct narrative of America as an ownership society.

Bountiful Darkness 2011

Bountiful Darkness is a photographic project that reclaims a landscape where resistance and violence were plentiful. The project is an historical inquiry. What are the histories embedded in landscape? Do landscapes have memory? Can those memories be visually represented? Woods challenges American preconceptions about whose bodies “belong” in nature and counters the “common sense” notion of rural geography as simply empty space.

The View From Here
Finding, Marking, and Living on the Line 1999

In an ongoing performance that lasted three months, Johnson used her body as the conduit for a series of exchanges of ideas with people about the invisible yet expanding Urban Growth Boundary in Portland, Oregon.

Herbert Hoover Dyke 2010

Christy Gast tap-dances her way across a Florida dike in the video titled Herbert Hoover Dyke. Her mesmerizing performance is both an auditory and a visual experience. Gast communicates a longing for intimate connection not only with landscape but also with the manmade objects located within it.

Domesticated 2008

Domesticated takes place in a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania in which the narratives of animals and humans are deeply entwined in the local landscape. The photograph project explores romanticism, fear, and interrelations.

Tide and Current taxi 2005

The Tide and Current taxi is a rowboat water taxi that is operated by artist Marie Lorenz in the New York Harbor and along the Brooklyn waterfront.