Two-Year Supply—A Visual Arts Exhibition of Sun Valley Museum of Art

Two-Year Supply OCT 29, 2021–JAN 8, 2022

THE MUSEUM 191 Fifth Street East, Ketchum, Idaho Tue–Sat, 10am–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: Alexis Pike, Canal-Milner, Idaho, 2012, pigment print from scanned negative, courtesy the artist INTRODUCTION PANELS: Russell Lee, Rupert, Idaho. Former CCC Civilian Conservation Corps camp now under FSA Farm Security Administration management.

A Japanese-American Farm Worker. July 1942, safety negative, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34- 073925-E [P&P] LOT 290 Rebecca Campbell, Albion, 2013, oil on canvas, courtesy the artist and L.A. Louver, Venice, CA BACK PANEL: Steve Davis, Meth Consumes #2, 2010, C-type print, courtesy the artist

INTERIOR, TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT: Rebecca Campbell, Two Year Supply: Clean, 2016, Windex, tin plated steel, glass, wood, digital projection, courtesy the artist and L.A. Louver, Venice, CA Alexis Pike, page 26 from Annie Pike ­Greenwood's We Sagebrush Folks (1934), ­pigment print, courtesy the artist Alexis Pike, Woman Crying in Print, 2010, ­pigment print from scanned negative, courtesy the artist Advertisement for Richfield, Idaho, promoting settlement following the Carey Act of 1894, ­collection of the Idaho State Historical Society Steve Davis, Mercado, 2010, archival inkjet print, courtesy the artist

wo-Year Supply features artwork by three

fertile land, of “perfect irrigation, never-failing

artists with ties to the agricultural com-

crops.” Those who came to farm found circum-

munities of southern Idaho: painter and sculp-

stances much different from those they were

tor Rebecca Campbell, and photographers

promised, but many managed to overcome harsh

Steve Davis and Alexis Pike. Each of the artists

conditions, establishing successful farms, some

contributes work that examines the history of

of which still exist today.

settlement by farming families in the region, the

communities that those families have built, and

the history of the Carey Act and subsequent

the way that life in Idaho’s rural towns and cities

settlement is not uncomplicated. The Carey Act

is changing in the 21st century.

ignored the fact that Native American people

had already inhabited this land for centuries. And

Drawn to the West by advertising following

The exhibition also acknowledges that

the Carey Act of 1894, which saw the transfer

during World War II, many farms in the region

of millions of acres of federal land to Western

relied on labor provided by Japanese-American

states on the condition that states would over-

internees at Minidoka Internment Camp—labor

see irrigation projects, pioneers settled in south-

documented in historical Farm Security Adminis-

ern Idaho on the promise of cheap, irrigated

tration (FSA) photographs in the exhibition.

land. The exhibition takes its title from a series of sculptures Rebecca Campbell has created that reflect on the Mormon tradition of canning and jarring extensive supplies of food in preparation for emergencies, and it celebrates the resilience of those who have farmed the high desert landscapes of southern Idaho for generations. Advertisements meant to lure settlers to the region depicted arid southern Idaho as a place of rich and

Two-Year Supply OCT 29, 2021–JAN 8, 2022

SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART

MUSEUM EXHIBITION Three contemporary artists invite visitors to engage with a part of Idaho that differs from the Wood River Valley in terms of landscape, culture, economy and history, but drives a significant portion of the state’s economy and its “Famous Potatoes” reputation ­beyond its state’s borders.

The exhibition features paintings and sculptures from Rebecca Campbell’s project The Potato E ­ aters.

Taking inspiration from the famous Vincent Van Gogh painting of the same name, the project mines Campbell’s family history in and around Rupert, Idaho, where both her parents grew up on potato farms and many of her relatives continue to live and work.

Investigating memory, nostalgia and imagination, Campbell’s paintings and sculptures depict members of her family and the landscapes and small towns of the region in the mid-20th century, a time when small family farms dominated the region’s landscapes and economy. Campbell’s works consider land, labor and community, and the relationship between the three.

Like Campbell, photographer Alexis Pike draws on her family history in We Sagebrush Folks, which takes its title from a book by Annie Pike Greenwood, a writer, teacher and farmer who lived in south central Idaho’s Magic Valley from 1913 to 1928. Greenwood’s book gave an honest account of both the joys and the hardships of farming in the area, where even with irrigation, there was rarely enough water. Pike has captured the spirit of Greenwood’s book in her

contemporary photographs of life on the farms and in the towns of southern Idaho, pairing her images with passages from We Sagebrush Folks and with ­reproductions of the posters and propaganda used to convince potential farmers to settle the West after the Carey Act. Photographer Steve Davis spent part of his youth living outside the town of American Falls, Idaho, in the southeastern part of the state. Davis made the photographs in his project As American Falls decades after he left the town, which lies along the Snake River and was a place surrounded by small, family-owned farms in his youth. The photographs document how life has and has not changed in the years since he moved away, depicting a place where international conglomerates now own most of the agricultural land and big-box stores have displaced small businesses.

His photographs illustrate the effects of these economic shifts, but also the way that some aspects of community life continue relatively unchanged in this particular American town.

The exhibition also includes a slideshow of photographs made by FSA photographer Russell Lee in July 1942. These images show Japanese-American internees at Minidoka who provided farm labor throughout southern Idaho as the men who owned the farms went off to war. Lee’s photographs, many of which are idealized in their depiction of confiscated labor and daily life in the Minidoka camp, are complicated in their representation of this little-known chapter in Idaho’s agricultural history.

ARTIST TALK WITH REBECCA CAMPBELL Thu, Oct 28, 5:30pm The Museum, Ketchum FREE, pre-registration required Join artist Rebecca Campbell for a conversation about the paintings, sculptures and installations that are part of Two-Year Supply. Campbell will discuss her project, The Potato Eaters, within the context of her family’s history of farming in Rupert, Idaho.

EVENING EXHIBITION TOURS Thu, Nov 4 & Thu, Dec 9, 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.

GALLERY WALK Wed, Dec 29, 5–7pm The Museum, Ketchum FREE