An image from "Forest Waves" by Mitch Epstein
A special new exhibit at the Art Museum of West Virginia University explores Massachusetts’ Berkshire forests through synchronized video and sound. The multi-channel film installation is the first exhibition housed in the museum’s new project space.
“Forest Waves” by photographer Mitch Epstein opened to the public in conjunction with the Mountaineer Short Film Festival and will remain at the museum through May 11.
“I am particularly excited about this video installation as an introduction to Epstein’s work,” said Robert Bridges, curator for the Art Museum of WVU. “Some will know the still photo by Epstein in the museum collection titled ‘Poca High School and John Amos Power Plant, West Virginia,’ but this video installation adds depth and a counterpoint to his ‘American Power’ series. Our visitors will appreciate the similarities between the Berkshire Mountains featured in ‘Forest Waves’ and our forests here in West Virginia.”
Epstein is based in New York and has produced dozens of photo essays commenting on topics such as societal structures and political power dynamics and the delicate balance of human effects on the natural world. His work has been exhibited and collected by numerous major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
“Forest Waves” is the museum’s first time-based art project. It allows visitors to explore how their understanding of human existence shifts when viewed against the backdrop of a millennia-old ecosystem. The film’s images are tied together with an improvisational score, created in collaboration with musicians Mike Tamburo and Samer Ghadry. The installation is the first selected for the museum’s new project space in the Museum Education Center.
“My hope is that visitors will be able to experience the Art Museum of WVU in a different way than they have in the past exhibitions,” said Aaron Levi Garvey, director of the Art Museum of WVU. “By sitting Mitch Epstein’s film work in an alternative space, I hope for visitors to contemplate the spaces within the museum itself but also contemplate their own interactions within nature. I want visitors to the museum to have spent time slowly looking at work and considering the role of the museum as a thought incubator and epicenter for inspiration, research and dialogue on universal topics with art being the catalyst.”
For more information about the Art Museum of WVU, visit artmuseum.wvu.edu.