It takes a second to realize how disconcerting Will Gurley’s painting of Utah’s Kanab Canyon is, as it’s so beautiful. The light strikes towering spires then catches on a huge hydropower dam.
This painting is part of why Gurley’s New American Romantic collection, in which he stylizes historical Hudson River School paintings, such as Thomas Moran’s magnificent canyons, then spins them to show what those landscapes could seem like through the lens of evolution, tucked or chopped by a street. The series is part of a job he calls the National Parks Development, which requires iconic American artwork about public lands, such as those intimate paintings and the timeless Works Progress Administration national-parks posters, and reimagines them to show what a human-chewed landscape could look like if we had been to glorify it in precisely the same way. He imagines Yellowstone’s geysers converted into a water park and Zion pecked out into a set of apartment buildings. The paintings feel subversive, but they also don’t even believe that way off.
Gurley, who climbed up climbing and mountaineering in Colorado, lives in Copenhagen today, in which his day job is designing trips to the Tivoli Gardens amusement park. He closed a show for the National Parks Development job in Carbondale, Colorado, and now his New American Romantic series can be obtained as a publication . He spoke to us concerning the line of preservation, the way we commodify and glorify public lands, and the difference between being in character and taking a picture of it.
On what feels important from far away: “I generated all this work within the past year out of Copenhagen, so I’m looking at that the States from overseas and thinking much about the American landscape. At the moment, these icons of America and our public lands feel as if theyrsquo;re actually in danger. The national parks have been landscapes that are precious to people, therefore I felt as though it was appropriate to work with them as my focus on strikes on character. This job was also a means for me to reconnect America and Colorado. I was raised in Denver and has been a total outdoors guy, but as I got more and more concerned with art and culture, I got thrown into the towns. I had this longing to the organic world, but now I had been visiting them through sort of a tourist mindset. ”
On taking inspiration–and tweaking it: “I got an enthusiasm for historical painting, particularly landscapes. The representation of the landscape , and how civilization has looked at it, is essential. At lots of the ancient paintings, the landscape features this storm that represents the uncontrollable aspects of character, along with a light beam across the landscape where humanity has touched on it. There’s Manifest Destiny aspect but also beauty and amazement of American jungle. I truly discover that intriguing. My paintings are supposed to be a critical stance against growth of the outdoors, so I took that style and incorporated things such as highway off-ramps that may easily occur. ”
On musicians as conservationists: “Thomas Moran’s most important paintings generated notions of protecting parks. He painted The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. They shot this painting to Congress, since nobody believed it existed, however, the painting was so persuasive that Congress realized that there was something to preserve. Artists helped create the national parks. They consumed and reconfigured the narratives they chose to present about the American West. ”
On swallowing character: “I’m currently working on many paintings about perspectives, and it’s shocking when I go back to the States how much a opinion is a part of consumption. I had been at Arches recently, and that there were these RVs and busses that arrived, folks got out and took photos, after which they left. Folks feel like theyrsquo;re entitled to a view. ”
How art can change your head: “I need people to approach it in an open way, so I create the work inviting, but then I have that hard-reality part within it. I’ve a small painting in my studio today –it’s gorgeous sea sunrise, with rocks from the waterbut when you get closer, you know the water is piled up. The painting is called Slow Boil, also if you get close, the title reveals itself. ”
“I don’t even mean to paint a grim picture of earth, but it’s grim. Landscapes right now have a lot to be discussed, there’s a lot of regret. Books are among the ways I’m communication my work in the future. I’m working with a children’s publication, or at the very least a book framed as a children’s publication, but with the harsh truths of humanity. ”
Other Climate Media We’re Checking Out This Month
‘The Rosette,’ from Devon Galpin Clarke
What were you doing when you’re 14? Not composing a graphic novel about species conservation along with a shape-shifting protagonist battling with snow leopard extinction. We’re excited to continue to keep our eyes high-achieving world-schooled adolescent Devon Galpin Clarke’s publication undertaking, The Rosette.
‘Broken Ground’
How many environmental disasters are falling under the radar, particularly when they occur in underserved, failed areas? Broken Ground, a brand new podcast from the Southern Environmental Law Center, attempts to come across those situations. The first few episodes are all about deadly coal-ash spills in the Southeast, along with the scale and details of these problems are shocking.
Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buy tickets
