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    A/political Rocks

     
    Upper Level Galleries
    July 22, 2023 — March 24, 2024
    Primarily drawn from the Henry collection, A/political Rocks explores the role landscape photography has played in shaping experiences of the American West, paying particular attention to among the most superficially banal and apolitical of landscape subgenres: images of rocks. Through critical attention to the shifting circumstances in which these photographs were made, consideration of the changing contexts of their display, and attention to the writing of their history this exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the power and politics of landscape.
    Spanning a roughly hundred-year period, the works in the exhibition range from documentary images produced as part of nineteenth-century geological surveys to modernist pictures made with artistic intent in the twentieth century. Taking several canonical American photographers as its focus, the exhibition includes work by Ansel Adams, Timothy O’Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, and Edward Weston, among others.
    Surveying a range of photographic approaches to landscape, the exhibition will also consider the formation of modernist camera aesthetics, evolving American attitudes towards nature, questions of race and citizenship, and photography’s complex entanglements with industrial capitalism and settler colonialism in the United States.

    Publication

    CREDITS

    A/political Rocks is organized by Adam Monohon, former Curatorial Department Coordinator.

    Related Programs

    <p>Timothy O’Sullivan (U.S., ca. 1840-1882). <em>Cañon de Chelle</em>, 1873. Albumen silver print. Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company, 97.124.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    A/political Rocks and Indigenous Relations to Land: A Lecture with Prof. Christopher Teuton

    January 4, 2024
    <p>Installation view of&nbsp;<em>Raúl de Nieves: A window to the see, a spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder&hellip; </em>Photo: Jonathan Vanderweit.</p>
    Events

    UW Family Weekend

    October 20, 2023 – October 21, 2023
    <p>Image: Courtesy of UW Botanic Gardens.</p>
    Tours
    ArtVenture: Seasonal Family Walk at Union Bay Natural Area
    September 30, 2023
    <p><em>Sophia Al-Maria: Not My Bag</em> [Installation view, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle. 2023]. Photo: Jueqian Fang.</p>
    Events
    Public Opening: Fall Exhibitions
    September 29, 2023
    <p>Sophia Al-Maria, <i>BEAST TYPE SONG</i>, 2019. Single-channel video (color, sound); 38:03 mins. Courtesy of the artist, Anna Lena Films, Paris and Project Native Informant, London. Installation view of&nbsp;<i>Sophia Al-Maria: Not My Bag</i>, 2023, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle. Photo: Jueqian Fang.
</p>
    Events
    Patron Preview: Fall Exhibitions
    September 29, 2023
    <p>Timothy O’Sullivan (U.S., ca. 1840-1882). <em>Cañon de Chelle</em>, 1873. Albumen silver print. Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company, 97.124.</p>
    Tours
    Meet the Curator: A/political Rocks
    August 12, 2023
    Tours

    Henry Art Liaison Tours

    November 16 - December 14, 2023