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K RUWEDEL: Presentation House Gallery's (PHG) new exhibition MARK RUWEDEL: Written on the Land contains 106 black and white photographs addressing the impact of technologies and culture on the land. Derived from Ruwedel's travels throughout North America over the past two decades, this project consists of three sections; Pictures of Hell, The Ice Age and Westward The Course Of Empire. The show is guest curated by former PHG Director Karen Love. Ruwedel's images portray not only the u s a g e . T h e Ice A g e a d d r e s s e s n o t i o n s o f t i m e : 1 1 , 0 0 0 y e a r s o f h u m a n h a b i t a t i o n is c o n s i d e r e d in r e l a t i o n to t h e m o s t recent c h a p t e r of t h e land's g e o l o g i c a l history. For example, the dry lakebed of W e s t w a r d The Course Of Empire takes as its subject the landscape architecture, ruins a n d other r e m n a n t s left in t h e w a k e of w e s t e r n e x p a n s i o n i s m , w i t h a particular focus o n the building produced of t h e railway. by railroad The earthworks resource devastation w e have wrought during our own recent history, weapons and other through testing, military resource maneuvers, extraction manifestations of 'progress', but also more distant a n d gentler t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s resulting f r o m h u m a n activity reaching back to the time of Pleistocene traces Lake Thompson Archaic contains Culture 20th a building, of the Desert t h e ruins socialist Air extraction, a n d military activities are suggestive of the relentless struggle to create wealth a n d p o w e r from the land. The centerpiece of W e s t w a r d is a n inventory of t h e l a n d f o r m s created by t h e m a n y h u n d r e d s of railroads built, a n d a b a n d o n e d , in the A m e r i c a n a n d C a n a d i a n W e s t . The cuts, fills a n d grades shown triumph in t h e p h o t o g r a p h s speak of technology over of the was alongside Century of an early hunter/gatherer societies - to groups that lived, for instance, along the shores of l o n g - d i s a p p e a r e d P l e i s t o c e n e lakes. community Force and contemporary Base. Both F r e n c h m a n a n d Y u c c a Flats, t h e s e t t i n g s for nuclear Test weapons Site, testing at the The Ice A g e is a s t u d y o f t h e p h y s i c a l traces of h u m a n a c t i v i t y i n t h e c o n t e x t o f t h e Pleistocene lakes, w h i c h once covered Nevada were Pleistocene l a k e s , as w a s Death Valley. N o t s o l o n g ago, by t h e earth's clock, D e a t h Valley w a s a what large portions of t h e arid A m e r i c a n West. The history of these d e p a r t e d lakes is visible on the land's surface. A l s o on the surface are traces of p a s t l a n d use a n d s u g g e s t i o n s of h o w t h e l a n d h a s b e e n c o n s i d e r e d by d i f f e r e n t p e o p l e s . The p h o t o g r a p h s d i s p l a y evidence of prehistoric cultures, Euro600-foot-deep freshwater Li lake: n a m e d Lake M a n l y by geologists, the physical traces of hunter-gatherer societies that subsequent Vef «4 iutdt teViM^"· p e r c e i v e d as h o s t i l e t e r r a i n . T h e r a i l r o a d s ' abandonment reveals the i m m e n s e w a s t e c r e a t e d by t h e c o n t i n u a l r e p l a c e m e n t of ' o u t m o d e d ' t e c h n o l o g i e s with newer ones. In addition to the l i v e d a l o n g its r e c e d i n g s h o r e s are t h e subjects of some of t h e photographs American exploration and settlement, the industries of resource extraction, a n d military i n c l u d e d in t h i s p r o j e c t . railroads, the W e s t w a r d archive includes September | October