Will Wilson, Auto-Immune Response (2005), multi-media installation detail, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona (all images courtesy the artist)
One little-known legacy of the Cold War is the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) across Indigenous lands in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico that at one time provided ore for nuclear bombs. Although the mines are closed now, they are by no means inert. Disposal sites contain tailings and contaminated building materials such as concrete blocks and rebar that release radioactive dust into the air when the wind blows across the desert, and radioactive silt into nearby water bodies when it rains.
Will Wilson remembers hanging out at the Rare Metals Disposal Cell near the western edge of the Navajo reservation where he grew up. For his ongoing photo series Connecting the Dots, Wilson uses a drone-mounted camera to document the remains of these mining operations. The images of mounds, hollows, and scars are sweeping and evocative, calling to mind the notion of the hyperobject, something almost too big to contemplate in their physicality, their numbers, and how they represent our hubristic tendency to simultaneously stumble toward both progress and self-destruction. They also resemble large-scale land arts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
I recently photographed the disposal site with Rodin Crater in the distance, said Wilson, referring to James Turrells iconic work. I want to do four of these pairings the Mexican Hat Disposal Cell reminds me of Spiral Jetty.
Many AUMs are on or near places sacred to the Din: Mexican Hat is a stones throw from the buttes of Monument Valley, Rare Metals rests in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks, and the Shiprock disposal site is not only near Shiprock but also the San Juan River, which is used for drinking, irrigating crops, and watering livestock. During heavy rains, water collects in the giant depressions left by mining activity where sheep drink and become contaminated. Sheep are part of the Navajo food supply.
Theyre trying to figure out what the vectors of exposure are. Food is definitely one of them, said Wilson, referring to a 2010 study in which researchers at the University of New Mexicos Community Environmental Health Program found high rates of uranium in Navajo mothers and infants blood.
Wilson, who currently heads Santa Fe Community Colleges photography program, has devoted years to surveying environmental conditions in the Navajo Nation. His photo and video series Auto-Immune Response (AIR) is a haunting tale of native resilience through years of racism, genocide, theft of homelands, and air and water poisoned by uranium mining and coal-burning power plants.
In AIR, Wilson renders himself as a survivor of some future apocalypse, wandering the canyons and playas of the high desert in a gas mask. A companion piece, AirLab, takes the form of a steel-frame hogan (a Navajo dwelling with spiritual significance) transformed into a kind of ark. Edible and medicinal plants grow in pots arranged inside the structure, symbolizing the determined survivalism of a people who have struggled against obliteration for centuries. After making the dome, Wilson discovered that its geometry was similar to the explosive lenses of the first atomic bomb.
They had explosives that would focus energy toward the plutonium core at the center. Instead of putting plutonium at the core, I used corn pollen, so it was kind of like a beauty bomb, he told Din College photography students during a recent talk.
Wilson also conducts ongoing explorations in portraiture, working with wet plate collodion process which he came to, in part, as a reaction to the ubiquity of digital photography. Wilson constructed the Critical Indigenous Photos Exchange (CIPX) as a relational work, inviting the public to have their own pictures taken. In this way, the subjects of the art can witness for themselves the transformative power of the photograph, interrogate the role of photography in creating identity, and question the cameras potential to capture a human being.
CIPX serves as a commentary on the 19th-century images of Edward Curtis, who famously portrayed his subjects as members of a vanishing race. The tintypes are distinctive not only for the way they alter the skin tone of their subjects but in the way they present friends and neighbors in the semblance of the late 19th century, suggesting historical and social continuity between the endangered figures of Curtiss photos and Wilsons living subjects.
Talking Tintypes plays on this aliveness: By means of augmented reality technology, it blends still images with video and sound to produce unexpected, sometimes whimsical mini-performances. Viewers must download an app on their phone in order to engage with these works; for example, to hear Swil Kanim performing a melancholy version of Ten Little Indians on the violin, or Storme Webber reciting her poem Grace, or to see Melissa Pochoema as an Insurgent Hopi Maiden in a white dress, her hair in whorls.
Wilsons work has been recognized throughout the United States. Earlier this month, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, opened a mid-career retrospective of Wilsons major works (AIR, Connect the Dots, and CIPX). Wilson is also collaborating with Senior Curator of Photographs John Rohrbach to create an exhibition for the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth this fall. Speaking with Light: Contemporary Indigenous Photography will lead visitors through a progression of still photos, videos, installations, and new media. Beginning with a display of historic delegation photographs, depicting Indigenous leaders gathering in Washington, DC, for (ill-fated) treaty negotiations, moving into a section that develops White Earth Ojibwe scholar Gerald Vizenors concept of survivance, a neologism combining survival and resistance.
Its an ongoing process of suing for recognition, said Wilson of the exhibition, of insisting that Indigenous people continue to be here. Were suing for awareness.
Read more:
Will Wilson's Portraits of Survivance - Hyperallergic
- Metal Gear Solid - Master Collection Vol 1 is out, bringing MGS3 to ... - Rock Paper Shotgun - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- Decadence, Sickness, and Death: Mourning and the Israel-Hamas ... - Religion Dispatches - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Gcaleka voted in as new public protector - Mail and Guardian - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- Turning the Gaza Hospital Blast into Propaganda Instead of News - The Messenger - October 23rd, 2023 [October 23rd, 2023]
- The Great North: 11 Times Moon Tobin Was the Funniest Tobin - MovieWeb - June 10th, 2023 [June 10th, 2023]
- Milano Design Week, 5 things not to be missed today - Domus IT - April 23rd, 2023 [April 23rd, 2023]
- How The Survivalism Movement Started - Survivopedia - January 25th, 2023 [January 25th, 2023]
- You need to watch the bloodiest Viking thriller on Amazon Prime ASAP - Inverse - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Roald Dahls Matilda the Musical Review: Kids Win the Day in This Perky Adaptation, but Emma Thompsons Trunchbull Is the Real Triumph - Variety - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- The Brooks Brothers Insurrection - Puck - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- 'The Last Of Us' - Potentially the Best Live-Action Game Adaptation - The Cosmic Circus - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- So Were Doing Survivalism in Cooking Shows Now - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Alone: Frozen Episode 6 Recap and Review - Post Apocalyptic Media - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Rainn Wilson Would Never Say 1 'The Office' Dwight Quote Because He's a Vegan - Showbiz Cheat Sheet - July 25th, 2022 [July 25th, 2022]
- 5 Book Reviews You Need to Read This Week - Literary Hub - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- Tradecraft /// Covert Operative Lifestyle + CIA Training Guide - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Britney Spears: The Once and Future Versace Muse - The New York Times - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- World Environment Day: David Bowie and the birth of environmentalism - The Star Online - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Debut novelist to give reading and take part in Q&A at Lancashire university - Lancashire Telegraph - May 3rd, 2022 [May 3rd, 2022]
- 3.3 Cultural Diversity Sociology - University of Minnesota - April 9th, 2022 [April 9th, 2022]
- 10 Things You Didn't Know about Donny Dust - TVOvermind - April 9th, 2022 [April 9th, 2022]
- The 40 Best Creative Hobbies You Can Try - Next Luxury - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- How Prepper Moms Tackled The Pandemic | KCM - Katie Couric Media - April 2nd, 2022 [April 2nd, 2022]
- How the Eusocial Nature of Ants Influences Their Response to Climate Change - AZoCleantech - March 18th, 2022 [March 18th, 2022]
- Freedom Convoy Suspects Charged With Plan to Kill Cops Linked to Anti-Government Group - VICE - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- Alleged member of neo-Nazi terror cell says he entered right-wing politics as a Donald Trump supporter - The Independent - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- If doomsday prepping has taught me anything, it's that we can't survive alone - Waging Nonviolence - February 7th, 2022 [February 7th, 2022]
- Joe Rogan: How the cage fighting commentator and dirty stand-up comedian became the king of podcasting - The Independent - January 17th, 2022 [January 17th, 2022]
- Neve Campbell Is Still the Reigning Queen of 'Scream' - ELLE.com - January 13th, 2022 [January 13th, 2022]
- 100 Best Prepper and Survivalist Youtube Channels - December 19th, 2021 [December 19th, 2021]
- As Sometimes a Great Notion Turns 50, It's Worth Looking Back at the Stampers and Oregon's Role in the Film - Willamette Week - December 13th, 2021 [December 13th, 2021]
- How we made this game, our game | TheSpec.com - TheSpec.com - December 13th, 2021 [December 13th, 2021]
- Robert Bly obituary - The Guardian - November 23rd, 2021 [November 23rd, 2021]
- Readers reply: where should I move to in order to best survive the climate crisis? - The Guardian - November 21st, 2021 [November 21st, 2021]
- 'Yellowjackets' Exemplifies the Regret that Can Come With Age - Your Money Geek - November 21st, 2021 [November 21st, 2021]
- Mythic Fantasy Roleplaying Game - November 17th, 2021 [November 17th, 2021]
- Where is Clay Hayes now? Alone season 8 winner update! - Reality Titbit - Celebrity TV News - August 26th, 2021 [August 26th, 2021]
- Clay Hayes' Wife: Is Clay Hayes Married? Does He Have Kids? - The Cinemaholic - August 26th, 2021 [August 26th, 2021]
- Theresa Kamper Now: Where is Alone Season 8 2nd Runner-up Today? Update - The Cinemaholic - August 26th, 2021 [August 26th, 2021]
- What It Really Means To Win A Season Of Alone - Looper - August 26th, 2021 [August 26th, 2021]
- Seventy-four - The Express Tribune - August 14th, 2021 [August 14th, 2021]
- Altercation: The Ghost That Stalks the American Jewish Establishment - The American Prospect - August 14th, 2021 [August 14th, 2021]
- Squirrels quite nice ... fox tastes awful Learning to survive in the wild - The Irish Times - July 25th, 2021 [July 25th, 2021]
- Ex-police community support officer jailed after IED found at her home - Yahoo News UK - July 10th, 2021 [July 10th, 2021]
- Alligator Loki is the MCU's newest, most amazing obsession - For The Win - July 10th, 2021 [July 10th, 2021]
- Survivalism 101: A Survivalist Preparation Guide | Gaia - June 23rd, 2021 [June 23rd, 2021]
- Download Pilot as it happens: Music, moshing and a whole lotta rain - Louder - June 23rd, 2021 [June 23rd, 2021]
- Returnal Is the First Showcase for the PS5, and Its Stunning - The Ringer - May 7th, 2021 [May 7th, 2021]
- Why American individualism is perfectly suited to the doomsday prepper movement - KCRW - May 4th, 2021 [May 4th, 2021]
- In the Earth review: Cosmic horror in the void between technology and magic - Polygon - April 17th, 2021 [April 17th, 2021]
- Vaccines, affinity fraud, survivalism among policy updates ... - April 11th, 2021 [April 11th, 2021]
- What is 'survivalism' and why is it getting so popular in Spain? - Euronews - April 11th, 2021 [April 11th, 2021]
- From One Nation to neo-Nazism: Australians being drawn into extremism - Sydney Morning Herald - March 31st, 2021 [March 31st, 2021]
- Archie Roach, we are unworthy of your benevolence and nobility - Beat Magazine - February 25th, 2021 [February 25th, 2021]
- Little Nightmares 2: The Story Explained | TheGamer - TheGamer - February 25th, 2021 [February 25th, 2021]
- Canada Designates Proud Boys, Atomwaffen, and The Base as Terror Organizations - VICE - February 6th, 2021 [February 6th, 2021]
- What To Make Of The Mysterious Melania Trump - Worldcrunch - July 21st, 2020 [July 21st, 2020]
- 'The Office:' How the Jim-and-Dwight Rivalry Impacted the Actors' Offscreen Relationship - Showbiz Cheat Sheet - July 21st, 2020 [July 21st, 2020]
- What Does Al-Qaeda Tell Us About The Base? - The Defense Post - July 21st, 2020 [July 21st, 2020]
- The 12 Best Zombie Movies of All Time - Men's Health - July 8th, 2020 [July 8th, 2020]
- Inside the luxury nuclear bunker protecting the mega-rich from the apocalypse - CNET - July 8th, 2020 [July 8th, 2020]
- Leader of ultra-right militia The Three Percenters General BloodAgent predicts end of America by 2021 and warns of new civil war - RT - July 8th, 2020 [July 8th, 2020]
- Coronavirus and the Culture Wars - PopMatters - July 8th, 2020 [July 8th, 2020]
- The Rose | by Ben Lerner - The New York Review of Books - July 8th, 2020 [July 8th, 2020]
- VICE - Armed Man Who Allegedly Stormed Justin Trudeau's Residence Appears to Have Posted QAnon Content - VICE - July 8th, 2020 [July 8th, 2020]
- Military Veterans and the Boogaloo Bois Explained - Connecting Vets - June 20th, 2020 [June 20th, 2020]
- Return to your roots: Gardening a great solution to cope with stress of pandemic - The Independent - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- Else Blangsted, Who Fled the Nazis and Found a Hollywood Ending, Dies at 99 - The New York Times - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- Inside ultra-luxurious disaster survival kits where super-rich can pay 4k for night vision goggles and posh - The Sun - May 24th, 2020 [May 24th, 2020]
- Far More Valuable Than a Stockpile of Food and Money - Investment U - May 19th, 2020 [May 19th, 2020]
- Eat this Now (Because You Have to): Terrible Homemade Bread - Kansas City Pitch - May 15th, 2020 [May 15th, 2020]
- Survivor Is the Quintessential TV Show - The Ringer - May 15th, 2020 [May 15th, 2020]
- Documentary shows life in the 'Biosphere' wasn't out of this world - Arlington Catholic Herald - May 15th, 2020 [May 15th, 2020]
- I didn't think a pandemic would bring out the domestic goddess in me - Metro.co.uk - May 11th, 2020 [May 11th, 2020]
- How to avoid the end times - The Japan Times - March 24th, 2020 [March 24th, 2020]
- Is It as Impossible to Build Jerusalem as It is to Escape Babylon? (Part Two) - CounterPunch - February 27th, 2020 [February 27th, 2020]
- Veteran Analyst Warns of XRP Crash to $0.20 as Price Stumbles - Ethereum World News - February 27th, 2020 [February 27th, 2020]
- XRP Could Be on Verge of Explosive Breakout Higher, Taking It 100% Higher - Ethereum World News - February 27th, 2020 [February 27th, 2020]
- XRP Just Flipped a Key Resistance Into Support: Why This is Bullish - Ethereum World News - February 27th, 2020 [February 27th, 2020]
- Ripple Is On The Verge Of A New Rally According To Analysts - Somag News - February 27th, 2020 [February 27th, 2020]