Reception: March 21, 4-6 p.m.
School of Art graduate student Alexis Joy Hagestad explores the effects of fire suppression in the United States, especially in the face of climate change, in a solo exhibition in the Lionel Rombach Gallery. A public reception is set for Friday, March 21, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Hagestad (Photography, Video & Imaging) won the 2024 Marcia Grand Centennial Sculpture Prize, which provides an MFA-seeking student each year with up to $10,000 to support completion of work in the sculptural/3D arts. The annual award is sponsored by Grand, a generous donor to the School of Art who was instrumental in supporting the school’s First Year Experience program.
“This Forest Remembers Fire” will feature photographs of isolated, burned tree structures printed on kozo paper and arranged to allow viewers to walk through the space, resembling a forest.
The installation also features a zine and a video. Hagestad said the zine explores two realities, one where a wildfire has just happened and the other many years after a wildfire. The video presents a fire map created from satellite images of fires that have occurred over the years in the western United States.
The map also includes an audio element: the sounds of trees moving and creaking in the wind, captured using contact microphones. “When layered together, the audio resembles the sound of fire, which I found interesting in the context of a forest remembering fire,” Hagestad said.
