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Shifting Landscapes Static Bounds

Bornhoft, Kellie

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Art.
What does it mean to preserve a landscape for “the enjoyment of future generations” when climactic forecasts that those generations will be fighting just to survive on this melting planet? The two notions cannot coincide in one narrative. Public lands drew me in because of the myths of imposed on them: myths of preserving an inhuman wilderness, myths of innocence in the histories of their conquering, and myths of their stability amidst a warming planet. I wrote words to challenge the narratives that saturate American public lands with romantic ideologies. I put those words through a laborious process of bronze casting to give them permanence and weight. I took them to places they needed to go: to popular sulfur steaming plateaus, to backcountry mountains with animals I had no names for, to the world’s oldest living organism carved with names of high school sweethearts. Unlike machined bronze plaques common in these landscapes, my plaques were were bumpy, warped, and revealed the hand of the human that wrote their words. In exchange for the plaques, I took away stones of equal weight from each location. A trade deemed illegal if abiding by laws imposed on these already stolen lands. Parks are one of many areas within our culture that need to be demystified in order for us to situate ourselves within the currents of our environmental predicament. This paper will contain field notes taken during the execution of the project alongside a more formal essay that critically probes how national parks affect our view of Nature and Climate Change.
Todd Slaughter (Advisor)
Mercil Michael (Committee Member)
Dani Restack (Committee Member)
34 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bornhoft, K. (2019). Shifting Landscapes Static Bounds [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1552574570601599

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bornhoft, Kellie. Shifting Landscapes Static Bounds. 2019. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1552574570601599.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bornhoft, Kellie. "Shifting Landscapes Static Bounds." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1552574570601599

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)