The Edge Effect: re-Imagining the East Jemez Landscape is now open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through May 6 in the Historic Fire Lookout Tower at Bandelier National Monument. The installation is by artists Kathleen Brennan and Shawn Skabelund. Photo by Kathleen BrennanPEEC News:
The Edge Effect: re-Imagining the East Jemez Landscape is now open inside the Historic Fire Lookout Tower at Bandelier National Monument. The art exhibition will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through May 6.
Kathleen Brennan and Shawn Skabelund are the artists behind The Edge Effect. Their installation is a site-specific, place-based installation inside the historic fire lookout at Bandelier.
Communities and cultures across the East Jemez landscape have been faced with unprecedented landscape changes due to severe drought, catastrophic wildfires and devastating floods. Now more than ever, because of climate change, we are going to have to break the lines and boundaries that separate us and come together in a coordinated collaborative effort to help steer novel approaches on how to manage and adapt to these impacted landscapes.
The Edge Effect art installation is part of this effort and will explore historical boundaries that divide the East Jemez landscape and often divide the human communities as well.
“As land managers and scientists, we don’t commonly use art as a way of communicating with the public. This is a great opportunity to engage the public about the environmental and social impacts of fire, and to engage people who care about these places, but may not have a background or interest in science,” said Jeremy Sweat, Chief of Resource Management at Bandelier.
Visitors at the installation may record their stories of changes in the East Jemez for the oral history archives.
Brennan and Skabelund are the first artists-in-residence for the East Jemez Landscape Futures Project (EJLF), a collaborative, landscape-scale approach to help guide future planning and research efforts in the severely altered landscapes of the eastern Jemez Mountains. The project seeks to address uncertainty by building a network of land managers, scientists, NGOs, and interested community members to inform future management, identify research needs, and capture stories from individuals and communities who are affected by these changes.
For more information about this and other PEEC programs, visit www.peecnature.org, email programs@peecnature.org or call 505.662.0460.
