Selected Exhibition Views

Human / Nature

curated by Douglas Stapleton
​

Illinois State Museum:  Lockport

April 22nd through September 24, 2022

Andrew Young
All This Land
 
Andrew Young’s artwork speaks to how we use and classify the materials we take from the earth, and how that reflects what we care about and understand about nature.  The work in All This Land speaks to consequence—how the well-being of the planet is affected by our actions. Young focuses on mineral extraction, using the waste created by mining to grind down into the pigments for his work. He also brings along the stories of the harm brought about in our actions on the earth.

Young sees us at a turning point in our relationship to the landscape.  No matter if one’s perception of nature is romantic, emotional, or practical, dramatic change is underway. All This Land uses a little humor, theater, abstraction, and recovered objects to address a more somber awareness that the Earth’s fragile systems and resources are not inexhaustible. - DS

All This Land was first presented at The Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in 2018-2019. This current installation is comprised of five wall pieces and four sculptures, a few less than half of the artworks from the original exhibition.
The Illinois State Museum Lockport Gallery is located on the first floor of the historic Norton Building, a massive limestone structure built by Lockport business mogul Hiram Norton around 1850. Strategically placed at the edge of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, the large, arched portals - now windows in the west galleries overlooking the canal and recreational trail - were originally used as access points for storing, processing, ​and packaging barrels of grain. Inside the building were also a supply store and a dormitory for canal crews.
The ISM Lockport Gallery iteration of the Human / Nature exhibition is a slightly pared down version of what appeared earlier in Springfield, Illinois. Three artworks of mine were returned to private collections: the Harbingers sculpture (2018) and the pigment works entitled, Horizons (Boundaries) 1 and 2 (2018). The historic nature of the Norton Building and its past industry connect intimately to the theme of the show, and most specifically to artworks such as Work Clothes and the Coal Drawings.
                                 Actual Size - 2018 (left), hand-painted papers with five-gallon bucket silhouette made of
                                                   pure cadmium orange pigment on museum board: 22.5 x 22.5 in. 
The River (Migrations) – 2018, water-tumbled “glacial erratic” stones encrusted with toxic mining sludge (Colorado): 6 x 26 x 14 in
                           Constellations 1 and 2 – 2018, coal dust, crushed freshwater mussel shells, zinc-white pigment,
​                                                               and gum arabic on museum board: 20.75 x 14.5 in. 
    Cartoon Box Trap (Kill the Wabbit) – 2018, disassembled and reassembled cardboard shipping container, hand-printed wood                    grain on rice paper, found cryptobiotic soil pigment (Utah), ashwood stick, and raw jute twine: 10.5 x 18 x 8 in.
                                          Coal Drawings 2 and 3 – 2018, ground coal, rust, and freshwater mussel shells
                                                       in gum arabic, zinc white, on soot-stained paper: 21.5 x 15 in. 
​                    Tales of Adventure – 2018, stacked hardbound fiction and biography books caked in 285-million-year-old,
                      fossiliferous ocean sediments (Kansas), Atlantic dogwinkle snails, and silver nail polish: 30 x 18 x 15 in.
                           Work Clothes – 2018, decayed late-1800s coal-mining artifacts (Braceville, Illinois), folded cotton
                                         shirt and pants soaked in burnt, oxidized shale overburden: 31 x 20.5 x 10 in.
Scenes from the show opening, including remarks from the curator, plus artists, visitors, and staff of the museum in attendance.