Untrammeled: At Wilderness' Edge—A BIG IDEA project of Sun Valley Museum of Art

Untrammeled:

At Wilderness’ Edge AUGUST 6–OCTOBER 22, 2021 A BIG IDEA PROJECT

THE MUSEUM 191 Fifth Street East, Ketchum, Idaho Mon–Fri, 10am–5pm Sats in Aug, 11am–5pm HAILEY CLASSROOM 314 Second Ave South, Hailey, Idaho Scheduled Class Times SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART P.O. Box 656, Sun Valley, ID 83353 208.726.9491 • svmoa.org

COVER: Laura McPhee, Aftermath (detail), 2021, immersive installation, courtesy the artist and Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum

INTERIOR, TOP TO BOTTOM: Mark Klett, Looking through the snow tunnel at Goat Lake, Sawtooth Range, ID, 1981, printed 2021, inkjet print, courtesy the artist and Lisa Sette Gallery, Phoenix

INTRODUCTION PANELS: James Lavadour, Expecting Rain, 2020, oil on panel, courtesy the artist and PDX Contemporary Art, Portland

Mark Klett, Walking Down Inferno Cone, Craters of the Moon, 2021, 2021, inkjet print, courtesy the artist and Lisa Sette Gallery, Phoenix

BACK PANEL: Marie Watt, Companion Species (Underbelly), 2018, aromatic cedar, courtesy the artist and PDX Contemporary Art, Portland

Marie Watt, Companion Species, 2017, reclaimed wood blankets, thread and embroidery floss, collection of Brad Johnson and Julie Beeler

hen Howard Zahniser of The Wilder-

more than half a century since the Wilderness

have been attracted to places like Sun Valley, and

responsibility to protect it, the individual’s right

ness Society wrote the Wilderness

Act became law, wilderness areas have become

many resort towns have seen a significant influx

to use and enjoy it, and what form that use

Act of 1964, he defined wilderness as “an area

magnets for human exploration and recreation

of new residents. What does this demographic

should take. The tension between those values is

where the earth and its community of life

as well as desirable communities to live in.

shift mean for the future of wilderness? Will it/

at the heart of this exhibition. We invite the com-

are u ­ ntrammeled by man, where man himself

should it change how we define and interact

munity to join us as we consider our relationship

is a visitor who does not remain.” The word

at the edge of large areas of wilderness. The very

with the wild lands that bump up against densely

­untrammeled is key to the act, which e­ stablished

existence of these communities depends upon

­occupied communities?

to wilderness today.

the National Wilderness Preservation S­ ystem

people’s desire to be in and experience places

and instructed federal land m ­ anagement

where "the earth and its community of life are

by the 2015 designation of the Cecil D. Andrus-

­agencies to manage wilderness areas and

untrammeled by man.” This has been particularly

White Clouds Wilderness, 276,000 acres of

­preserve w ­ ilderness c­ haracter. This adjective,

true in the last year, as the C ­ ovid-19 pandemic

mountain backcountry within Idaho’s Boulder-

which signals the absence of human control

has driven unprecedented numbers of visitors

White Cloud Mountains. That designation

or restriction on the landscape, has long been

into wilderness areas in search of safe places to

­followed several years of community conversa-

a measure for designating wild lands. In 2021,

recreate. Those who are able to work from home

tion about the meaning of wilderness, the human

Many resort towns, including Sun Valley, sit

This BIG IDEA project was spurred in part

Untrammeled:

At Wilderness’ Edge AUG 6–OCT 22, 2021 A BIG IDEA PROJECT MUSEUM EXHIBITION

LECTURES & CONVERSATIONS

The Wilderness Act’s definition of wilderness serves as a framework for the exhibition, which features four artists who consider wilderness through various lenses: wildland (“the earth”), wildlife (“its community of life”), and human use of and intersection with wilderness (“man himself is a visitor”).

Mark Klett first examined the changing nature of wilderness through his work rephotographing the sites of 19th-century survey photographs made by Timothy O’Sulllivan, Carleton Watkins and others in the Western U.S. Untrammeled coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts (now SVMoA), where Klett spent several years teaching at the beginning of the organization’s ­history. He recently returned to the area to make new work exploring the collision between the built and natural environments, and the ways that interface has changed in the Wood River Valley and beyond since his time here in the 1970s and 80s.

Photographer Laura McPhee, who lives in the Wood River Valley and along the East Fork of the Salmon River, adjacent to the White Clouds Wilderness Area, has made many bodies of work investigating the landscapes of the Intermountain West. For this exhibition, McPhee has created an immersive experience featuring large-format photographs and an installation of charred trees.

While Klett and McPhee consider shifts in the definition of wilderness and the impact of humanwildland interface, artist Marie Watt explores the contradictions between the human relationship to wildlife and the stories that we tell about creatures who live in the wilderness. Watt, a citizen of the Seneca Nation, explores the intersection of history, storytelling and community in her work. Her Companion Species series responds to Seneca and Iroquois beliefs that animals are our first teachers and that we are engaged in a reciprocal relationship with them.

The exhibition features Companion Species: Underbelly, an enormous cedar sculpture of a reclining shewolf that triggers contradictory responses—fear and danger, but also companionship and play.

James Lavadour’s approach to painting and printmaking is rooted in his intimate relationship with the land of western Oregon as an avid hiker and a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla. Rather than depicting specific landscapes in his expressive, abstract canvases, Lavadour uses his painting practice to convey his sense of oneness with the land. Lavadour’s process involves applying layers of paint, then scraping or wiping it away, performing his own kind of creation act to suggest and celebrate land. The exhibition includes Expecting Rain, an installation of 18 paintings investigating the way our experience of landscape changes with shifts in light, weather and topography.

ARTIST TALK: JOCK REYNOLDS IN CONVERSATION WITH MARK KLETT AND LAURA MCPHEE Tue, Sep 7, 6pm The Community Library, Ketchum FREE, pre-registration required Livestreaming available Join artist, curator and scholar Jock Reynolds, the Henry Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery from 1998 to 2018, for a conversation with internationally known photographers Mark Klett and Laura McPhee. The three will discuss the complex role of wilderness in Klett’s and McPhee’s practices, and will also address the commissioned projects each photographer created for Untrammeled.

FEATURED SPEAKER: KEVIN FEDARKO AND “THE EMERALD MILE” Thu, Sep 16, 6:30pm Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum $35 / $45 nonmember $15 student & educator (limited to one per educator) Fedarko’s first book, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon, was a New York Times bestseller and won both the National Outdoor Book Award and the Reading the West Award. The story chronicles an adventure on the Colorado River’s floodwaters to beat records for the fastest boat ever propelled through one of the West’s most famous desert wildernesses. Kevin Fedarko has written for National Geographic, The New York Times, Esquire, Outside and other publications. He studied political science at Columbia University and Russian history at Oxford before joining the staff at Time magazine, where he worked primarily on the foreign affairs desk. He lives and works in Flagstaff, Arizona.

This lecture has been generously sponsored by Jane P. Watkins.

PANEL DISCUSSION: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH, IN THE WILDERNESS? Thu, Sep 30, 6pm The Museum, Ketchum FREE, pre-registration required Immediately following the second September 30 Evening Exhibition Tour, join Sawtooth National Recreation Area Ranger Kirk Flannigan and retired Sawtooth Forest Ranger Liese Dean for a discussion of evolving ideas about wilderness management, use and recreation in the 21st century.

EXHIBITION OPENING CELEBRATION AND GALLERY WALK Fri, Aug 6, 5–7pm The Museum, Ketchum FREE Join us as we celebrate the opening of Untrammeled.

Artist Laura McPhee will speak about her installation at 6pm.

GALLERY WALK Fri, Sep 3, 5–7pm The Museum, Ketchum FREE

EVENING EXHIBITION TOURS Thu, Aug 19, Thu, Sep 30 and Thu, Oct 21, 4:30pm & 5:30pm The Museum, Ketchum FREE, pre-registration required Enjoy a glass of wine as you tour the exhibition with SVMoA’s curators.

ARTIST TALK: ARTIST MARIE WATT IN CONVERSATION WITH AUTHOR SARAH SENTILLES Tue, Oct 5, 6pm Venue TBA FREE, pre-registration required Join artist Marie Watt and author Sarah Sentilles for a conversation about their shared interest in responding to the natural world in their respective practices.

The two will discuss their explorations of "companion species" (the title Watt gave to a large body of work), and their expansive thinking about what counts as family and about kinship as a practice. As Sentilles asks, "What would the world look like if we lived as if we were all related?"

ADULT CLASSES

FILM

CREATIVE JUMP-IN: INTRODUCTION TO ­ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WITH NATE LILES

PUBLIC TRUST

Fri, Oct 1, 5:30–11:30pm Little Redfish Lake Sat, Oct 2, 1–3pm Hailey Classroom, Hailey $150 / $200 nonmember 18 years and older, beginners welcome Learn how to create stunning images of the landscape under a night sky in the dramatic Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve! This class will introduce participants to pre-trip planning, camera settings and ideal equipment, composition, panorama creation and postprocessing techniques.

On Friday, participants will carpool to Little Redfish Lake, where they’ll photograph the sunset. Once a dark sky is in place, participants will practice night sky compositions before heading back to Ketchum.

On Saturday, students will discuss post-processing techniques, including light noise reduction, ­panorama stitching, lens corrections and image retouching.

With more than a decade of experience, Nate Liles is a full-time photographer and videographer working primarily in the Western states. He is a landscape photographer at heart and is most at home under a dark sky full of stars.

FAMILY PROGRAM

Thu, Oct 21, 4:30pm & 7pm Magic Lantern Cinemas, Ketchum $10 / $12 nonmembers Part love letter, part ­political exposé, Public Trust investigates how the United States has arrived at a precarious ­moment, when various forces are clamoring for the privatization of public lands. Produced by Patagonia and ­Executive Producers Robert Redford and Yvon ­Chouinard, the film follows individuals who are pushing back against those who want to privatize federal lands in order to mine for gas and oil in the Arctic ­National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, the Boundary ­Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota and Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

GRATITUDES Major support for Untrammeled comes from The Robert Lehman Foundation with ­additional support from Jane P. Watkins and Jennifer Wilson.

Laura McPhee's installation was made ­possible in part through a grant from the Idaho C ­ ommission on the Arts.

AFTERNOON ART Fri, Oct 1, Oct 8 and Oct 15, 2:30pm & 3:30pm The Museum, Ketchum FREE, pre-registration encouraged Families will make art and view the exhibition together. Projects change weekly and always connect to the artwork in the exhibition. For families with children ages 5–12; walk-ins accommodated if space is available.

Sun Valley Museum of Art ­acknowledges the Shoshone and Bannock peoples and their ­homelands here in the Wood River Valley, as well as their use of these lands in the past, present and future.