Below the Surface

By Amy R. Whitehead

A Review of Rick Silva’s Western Fronts

It was a typical gray and rainy Oregon morning as I made my way to the Museum. I was blessed with cold wet kisses from the sky and a warm friendly greeting from the elderly gentleman perched on a stool in the doorway of the museum. He was excited at my arrival and my interest in the exhibits and wished me well as I crossed the threshold into the foyer. After making my way to the gallery space where the exhibition was set up for viewing, I took a seat on the square bench positioned in front of the modest sized screen. The film was already in the middle of its run when I entered the space, and I was met with a large triangle in the middle of the screen that was blocking out a scenic view of a desertscape. Within the triangle, was a darkness created by geometric shapes of varying sizes and gray scale. While the video played out, I began to take notes on the dimly lit space and the size of the screen, along with the subtle audio that accompanied the film. It had registered immediately with me that the geometric shapes represented the minerals that were buried deep inside the mountains. I got up and wandered around the space, there was a simple decal that had been applied to the wall with the name of the artist and the work that was on display. On the adjacent wall there was a brief description of the artist and his work.

As the video came to an end, I settled back in place in front of the screen and prepared for the video to start again. The video opened with a brief narrative on the removal of historical distinction and protection of four National Monuments located in the western United States in white lettering set against a dark background. I could easily recall watching these events unfold as the Trump Administration took control of the government. I remembered the anger and disappointment that the news brought me, which eventually led to the purchase of a t-shirt with Smokey the Bear raising a fist in the air and proclaiming “Resist”. The video begins with aerial drone footage of the Cascade-Siskiyou mountains and forest. There is a bar through the middle of the screen with the same dark fractal patterns that disrupt the scene. As the drone flies over the rocky, mountain terrain, it comes to a dense forest that is soon distorted by the bar. Having a sister that lived in Central California I spent several summers road tripping and hiking through Northern California, and though I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for only a short time, the implications of the damage that could occur were too close to home. It was a gut-wrenching experience to think about more and more land being permanently disfigured in the name of profit margins and capital gains. Having seen what clear cutting and deforestation can do to an area, the thought of losing natural resources was still mild, when compared to thinking about the destruction of ecosystems and the toxic pollutants that are left behind after the extraction of minerals.

As I sat there with this oppressive sense of dread and misgivings about the current state of our environment, I tried to remind myself that when President Biden took office, he reversed the policy and reinstated protections to those lands. But the thought did little to comfort me, and really led me to think about the larger deterioration taking place on a global scale. Though it seems that the tide is changing and there is hope for the future, it is really a false sense of hope. The need for raw materials is never going to end and the new technology that is supposed to fix environmental issues are really only adding to the problem. As many believe we have come to a point of no return and have already damaged the earth to a point that is beyond repair, it is hard to have any optimism about the issue.

As the video progressed through the other monuments that had fallen under attack, I began to think about mountain top mining in West Virginia, and how very little has been done to hinder the process, let alone put an end to it. An aerial shot of the area will show a pristine forest crawling across the mountains, interrupted by a deep scar on the surface of the mountain. Pits of coal sludge and debris left to flow down the mountain into the water ways, and eventually into the nearby towns. But unlike the parks that are well known to many tourists and adventure travelers, the mountain towns are small, communities that were long ago discarded by more “civilized” communities.

As I watched the drone flying over the rocky desert landscape, I thought of the similarity to Robert Smithson’s film Spiral Jetty, and how he documented his progress, and then filmed his finished product from a helicopter. Though the statements that the two artists were making do not share any similarities. Spiral Jetty was about the artist leaving his mark on the land, even if it would only be there for a short time. Smithson was interested in how the piece would age and transform within the environment in which it was placed. Silva on the other hand was making almost the opposite statement. Silva was reacting to how greed leads humans to view the environment. Western Fronts feels more like a silent, yet somewhat violent protest against humankinds’ actions upon the earth. The film feels very critical of mans’ entitled view of the earth and its’ resources.

I also saw a connection to some of the artworks created by Alexis Rockman, particularly those from the Great Lakes Cycle series. Many of his paintings depict an almost beautiful landscape, but it is in some way damaged or obscured by manmade elements of pollution, piles of garbage, and decaying infrastructure. Just like in Silva’s film, the viewer wants to see the beauty that is peeking out in select spots of the composition, but it is always just out of reach. It feels like a metaphor for effective actions against climate change. We can see the options and possibilities, but there always seem to be barriers that prevent us from seeing the true solution.

References

2022. Ecological Impacts of Mountaintop Removal. 01 22. https://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/ecology/.

2018. Western Fronts. Directed by Rick Silva.