Widening the Lens will offer a look at ecological trauma through the lens of photography. Organized around themes of colonization, preservation, and resource extraction, the exhibition will feature approximately 90 works, including new site-specific commissions by a range of world-class artists.
Lucy Raven, Demolition of a Wall (Album 2), 2022. Color video, quadrophonic sound, bleacher seating, natural light. Courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.
Victoria Sambunaris, Untitled (jump), Glamis, CA, 2020. Chromogenic print. Courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery.
Since its invention, photography has dramatically altered access to and understanding of the natural world. Employing the breadth of lens-based media, participating artists will document the indelible effects of climate change, colonialism, industrialization, racism, war, and other human interventions with an awareness of photography’s complex historical relationship with the American landscape. Throughout Widening the Lens, the Carnegie Museum of Art will collaborate with its sister institution the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, known for its public and scholarly engagement with the Anthropocene, as well as local environmental advocacy groups, on public events and other programming. A section of the full-color catalog will pay tribute to Rachel Carson, the marine biologist and conservationist born near Pittsburgh whose seminal work Silent Spring advanced worldwide awareness of the dangers of environmental pollution.
Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians), I'm tired of being temporary, I'm tired of an eventually, I heard you singing last night on the bank up the mountain on the cliff facing west. The oldest of us is in the east and they're tired too., 2021. Inkjet print with hand-scratched text and UV laminate. Courtesy the artist and Broadway Gallery.