Katherine Bauer. Of The Quarry Land

About

The artist continues an investigation begun with her series “Teenage Dream Sequence” in new works created through ritualistic performances during which the artist exposes 16mm film and photographic paper rolls to elements of nature – plants, soil and moonlight, among others.

Bauer, who for several years has centered her works around various rites of passage of the American teenager, focuses this time on the abandoned industrial quarry, presented as a “shrine to the inherently transgressive activity that has led to the need to create sacred spaces”, or as privately owned property that adolescents and others commonly trespass, as well as an industrial wasteland undergoing a transitional process of reclamation by the earth.

“The quarry featured in my work has springs beneath it that were once considered sacred. Springs generally are sites inhabited by divine presences, which in this case have been silenced by the utilitarian interpretations inherent in the mining process. I see my work here as reawakening those divine presences.” – KB

“Of the Quarry Land” debuts Bauer’s “lunagrams”, large black & white photograms made with datura, nightshades and other moonflowers exposed to moonlight, exhibited alongside hand-processed 16mm films shot at dusk at the quarry that are dense with the turquoise imagery of the unnaturally saturated blue water caused by limestone excavation. Also on view are analog c-prints of enlarged 35mm film photographs shot by the artist on site from both above and under water.