“Summer” July 7 - August 29th
SARAH CHRISTIANSON KEVIN KUNISHI ANDREANNE MICHON
March 22 - May 7, 2016 This Land Is Our Land Guest Curator Monique Deschaines Opening Reception: March 24, 6-8pm
Zener Schon Contemporary Art is pleased to present This Land is Our Land, a group exhibition bringing together three artists, whose photographs explore the geographical ways we interpret our land. From the impact of oil drilling on North Dakota’s rural landscape; to Hawaii, where the lens of post-post modernism troubles post-colonial notions of identity; to the Sierras, where documenting nature becomes a meditation on time and mortality. The works in this exhibition describe a conversation between our reverence for nature and the reality that we do not stand outside of it, that our economy and culture consistently interact with, and often erode, the object of our reverence - just as Woody Guthrie sings in “This land was made for you and me.”
Zener Schon Contemporary Art 23 Sunnyside Avenue, Mill Valley CA 94941 www.zenerschongallery,com info@zenerschongallery.com 415.738.8505
“Summer” July 7 - August 29th
SARAH CHRISTIANSON Sarah Christianson records the subtleties and the nuances of the Midwestern landscape through long-term photo- graphic projects. Her current body of work, When the Landscape is Quite Again, began in 2012 when Christianson started documenting the legacy of oil booms and busts in her home state of North Dakota. Christianson photographs the impact of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing on the region; they capture the conversion of western North Dakota’s quiet agrarian landscape into an industrial zone dotted with well sites, crisscrossed by pipelines, lit up by natural gas flares, and contaminated by oil and saltwater spills. Christianson’s photographs examine the physical inscriptions of industry upon pastoral land while simultaneously unearthing the economic cycles of mining natural resources.
When the Landscape is Quiet Again: North Dakota’s Oil Boom “We do not want to halt progress. We do not plan to be selfish and say ‘North Dakota will not share its energy resource.’ No, we simply want to insure the most efficient and environmentally sound method of utilizing our precious resources for the benefit of the broadest number of people possible. And when we are through with that and the landscape is quiet again…let those who follow and repopulate the land be able to say, our grandparents did their job well. The land is as good and in some cases better than before.” -North Dakota Governor Art Link, 1973 Since 2012, I have been documenting the legacy of oil booms and busts in my home state and how the region is changing again today due to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. My photographs bear witness to the transformation of western North Dakota’s quiet agrarian landscape into an industrial zone dotted with well sites, criss-crossed by pipelines, lit up by natural gas flares, and contaminated by oil and saltwater spills. The Bakken oil field is currently pumping out over a million barrels per day from over 10,000 active wells, and companies may yet drill thousands more. These activities have brought a steady stream of revenue, people, and jobs to this economically depressed region. Everyone wants a piece of the action, including my family: since the start of the boom we have been profiting from oil wells drilled on land that my great-grandparents homesteaded in 1912. Although many other families are doing the same, I am still torn: what are the hidden costs of this prosperity? Experts originally anticipated that the Bakken Boom would continue for several decades, but falling oil prices may be triggering another bust. However, its effects are still rippling across the country in the wake of massive spills and oil train explosions. I examine the scars from North Dakota’s prior boom-and-bust cycles and the new wounds being inflicted upon my home because the status quo must change: something needs to be left for the next generation, not the next quarter. Bio Sarah Christianson (b. 1982) grew up on a four-generation family farm in the heart of eastern North Dakota’s Red River Valley (an hour north of Fargo). Immersed in that vast expanse of the Great Plains, she developed a strong affinity for its landscape. This connection to place has had a profound effect on her work: despite moving to San Francisco in 2009, she continues to document the subtleties and nuances of the Midwestern landscape and experience through long-term projects. Christianson earned an MFA in photography from the University of Minnesota. Her work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in the collections of Duke University, the National Museum of Photography in Copenhagen, and several institutions in the Midwest. She has received grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Center for Cultural Innovation. Christianson’s first book, Homeplace (Daylight Books), documents the history and uncertain future of her family’s farm by interweaving her images with old snapshots and historical documents culled from her personal archive. Throughout her work, she uses her personal experiences and connection to the land to evoke a strong sense of place, history, and time.
SARAH CHRISTIANSON
Shale Shaker St, July 2015 C-Print 28” x 35” Image Size on 30” x 40” Paper, Framed at 36” x 45” Edition of 2
Patriot Fuels, July 2015 C-Print 28” x 35” Image Size on 30” x 40” Paper, Framed at 36” x 45” Edition of 2
SARAH CHRISTIANSON
Flaring near the Blue Buttes, January 2015 C-Print 8” x 10” Image Size on 11” x 14” Paper, Framed at 16” x 20” Edition of 4
Natural gas flaring from my family’s wells, August 2013 C-Print 8” x 10” Image Size on 11” x 14” Paper, Framed at 16” x 20” Edition of 4
SARAH CHRISTIANSON
The Badlands south of Medora, July 2014 C-Print 8” x 10” Image Size on 11” x 14” Paper, Framed at 16” x 20” Edition of 4
Tioga Lateral Pipeline, White Earth River Valley, May 2013 C-Print 8” x 10” Image Size on 11” x 14” Paper, Framed at 16” x 20” Edition of 4
SARAH CHRISTIANSON
Ongoing oil spill cleanup efforts on the Jensens’ land, July 2015 C-Print 16” x 20” Image size on 20” x 24” Paper, Framed at 24” x 30” Edition of 4
Removing 865,200 gallons of oil from the Jensens’ land, July 2014 C-Print 16” x 20” Image size on 20” x 24” Paper, Framed at 24” x 30” Edition of 4
SARAH CHRISTIANSON
Pickup abandoned in the Little Missouri National Grasslands, July 2014 C-Print 8” x 10” Image Size on 11” x 14” Paper, Framed at 16” x 20”, Edition of 4
Pipeline to Tioga through the Jorgensons’ land, July 2015 C-Print 8” x 10” Image Size on 11” x 14” Paper, Framed at 16” x 20” Edition of 4
Pickup abandoned in the Little Missouri National Grasslands, September 2015 C-Print 8” x 10” Image Size on 11” x 14” Paper, Framed at 16” x 20”, Edition of 4
“Summer” July 7 - August 29th
ANDREANNE MICHON
Andréanne Michon uses photography, sound and video, and printmaking to explore the processes of survival, continuity, and renewal that exist in nature. She investigates the intricacies between natural and controlled landscapes, and the exchange between life and death. Michon’s photographic works often consist of multiple images and are constructed to stimulate new perceptions. Her images ask the viewer to simultaneously experience the beauty of the sublime and the inevitability of change.
ANDREANNE MICHON
AndrĂŠanne Michon Untitled 13 (Gravity 3), 2013 Archival Pigment Print 3 pieces at 40 x 32 inches each Edition of 3 $7,875 (Unframed)
ANDREANNE MICHON
Andréanne Michon Untitled 16 (Fractal 9), 2013 Archival Pigment Print 9 pieces at 16” x 20” inches each Edition of 5 $9,000 (Unframed)
“Summer” July 7 - August 29th
KEVIN KUNISHI Between 2011 and 2015, Kevin Kunishi returned to Hawaii to explore his family and cultural roots and produced, Imi Haku. The landscape of these works, at first only vaguely familiar, has, through this project, become a map of Kunishi’s own history, both imagined and inherited. Once a sovereign nation, unilaterally annexed by the United States in 1898, Hawaii still bears the markings of Western imperialism and its complex collective identities are often hidden from view. Yet, just beneath the surface, the physical features, social constructs, and the emotional milieu of the islands and its peoples are palpable. Kunishi’s photographs work as a collection of cues and markers, navigating these fabricated realities and landscapes to produce a poignant study on the ambiguity of post-colonial identity. Artist Statement "Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations." – Thoreau Between 2011 and 2015, I returned to the land of my ancestors to explore my familial and cultural roots. The Hawaiian landscape, at first only vaguely familiar, has become a map of my own history, both imagined and inherited. Once a sovereign nation, unilaterally annexed by the United States in 1898 in what many consider to be an illegal act, Hawaii still bears the deep markings of Western imperialism. Hawaii’s complex collective identity is hidden from view, yet becomes palpable as one looks through the eyes of history, and the lens of cultural assimilation and appropriation. The resulting photographs, a collection of cues and markers, navigate the fabricated realities of the landscape. Just barely beneath the surface, the complexity manifests in physical features, social constructs, and the emotional milieu of the islands and its people.
KEVIN KUNISHI KEVIN KUNISHI
#0013 Pahoa, Hawaii, 2012 Archival Pigment Print 40” x 30” , Edition of 3
#0066 Looking West, Tantalus, Oahu, 2013 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5
KEVIN KUNISHI
#0067 Kalapana, Hawaii, 2013 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5
#0897 Aiea, Oahu, 2015 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5
KEVIN KUNISHI
#0098 Pupukea, Oahu, 2015 Archival Pigment Print 10” x 8”, Edition of 7
#0232 Kaunakakai, Molokai, 2014 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5
KEVIN KUNISHI
#0236 Laie, Oahu, 2011 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5
#0244 Abel, Naalehu, Hawaii, 2012 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5
KEVIN KUNISHI
#0187 Nanakuli, Oahu, 2015 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5
#0187 Nanakuli, Oahu, 2015 Archival Pigment Print 16” x 20”, Edition of 5