Mark Ruwedel | Westward

Opening Reception: February 26 through April 2, 2005

Opening reception with the artist: Saturday, February 26, from 2 – 5 PM

Our third exhibition by Mark Ruwedel will showcase images from his ongoing project (begun in 1994) titled “Westward the Course of Empire”. The centerpiece of Westward is an inventory of the landforms created by the large numbers of railroads built in both the American and Canadian west. The cuts, fills, and grades shown in the photographs speak of the triumph of technology over what was often perceived of as hostile terrain, and the relentless struggle to create wealth and power from the land. The western railroads also developed in tandem with a specific photographic practice, the tradition of precise topographical observation that the photographs in Westward allude to. In addition to the railroads, the Westward archive includes images of uranium claims and mine entrances, bomb craters at abandoned army fields, “beehive” furnaces found at old saw mills, and derelict salt works on dry lake beds, selected from The Ice Age project.