Rick Silva

Western Fronts: Cascade Siskiyou, Gold Butte, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Bears Ears

Western Fronts: Cascade Siskiyou, Gold Butte, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Bears Ears features sweeping landscapes and an emotive soundtrack. Imagery of sublime forests and rugged red rock correspond with nationalistic ideals of the "American West." Artist Rick Silva challenges these wilderness tropes through digital intervention. Dark singular shapes overlay the filmed landscapes, reducing the natural forms to glitchy digital matter.

Integrating art and technology, Silva’s work poses questions about politics and place. As a response to the Trump administration's decision to strip land from four major national monuments - in the states of Oregon, California, Nevada, and Utah - Silva sought out to critically examine the effects of the presidential declaration. These once protected lands, some of which are homes to sacred Indigenous sites, become sources of economic gain for mining corporations. Silva's digital renderings eerily reveal how society values Western land as capital.