Exhibit highlights findings in the American West

Mar. 3—LUBBOCK — Each year, during the fall semester, students in the Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech University go on a two-month exploration and document what they find.

Their findings are then turned into a series of artistic exhibits that are then displayed at the Museum of Texas Tech.

This past fall semester's pieces are currently up in the "Land Arts of the American West 2022" exhibition.

The opening reception took place back on Feb. 17 and the exhibit is on display through April 23.

Director of Land of the Arts of the American West at Texas Tech and associate professor Chris Taylor says the exhibition culminates the semester-long transdisciplinary field program.

The program is based at the Huckabee College of Architecture at Texas Tech University.

"It attracts architects, writers and historians to spend the semester, the fall semester, doing field work," Taylor said.

The students camp for about 50 days, travelling about 6,000 miles and look at a wide range of things that people have made in the land over time.

"We look at geology," Taylor said. "We look at nature. We look at industry and art and that full spectrum and the participants translate that experience. We're camping and living on the ground. We're developing an intimate relationship with the land and the participants are making their own work as we travel."

That work takes many forms.

Each participant shapes their body of work as they see fit with the questions that are driving it.

As a result, painters will sometimes paint and architects will write.

"Because of the diversity of sites that we visit, it's really important that the people are as diverse as possible," Taylor said. "That creates a lot of cross-collaborations. Sometimes the writers will make images or the image makers will write."

Some of the exhibits will include journal entries from the trip, different rocks collected to pottery.

Another part of the exhibit includes different samples of soil that a student brought back.

The program attracts participants from as far away as Holland, Rhode Island and all over the world.

"A lot of people came to Texas Tech to participate in this program," Taylor said.

To get into the program, students must go through an application process that takes place in the spring.

"It's a straight-forward application process with letter of recommendation and examples of past works," Taylor said. "There's an interview and part of the admissions process is to assemble the most motivated and diverse group possible."

This year's participants included Ty Cary, Elise Coleman, Macaella Gray, Walker Guinnee, Miranda Klein, Emily Lee, Megan McKenzie and Zoe Roden.

The program started in 2002 before Taylor moved it to Texas Tech in 2009.

"We've been going strong ever since," Taylor said.

He described the trip as "a semester abroad in their own backyard" with trips all over the western portion of the country including New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona.

"We go to the American backyard in the west," Taylor said. "We're in New Mexico, Utah and Arizona as well as West Texas. We go out for a month and then take a week break to deep clean and pause and then go back out for another month. That first trip takes us up around Utah and Nevada and then the second trip, the days are getting shorter so we go further south like in Southwest Texas and New Mexico."

The trip is split up into parts with the first trip taking place in September and October and the other in November.

"Then we're back in the studio on campus for the final part of the semester where the work is reviewed publically," Taylor said. "It's not just a road trip. We have to process our thoughts."

One of the things that keeps Taylor excited about the program is that he thinks of it as a "charged stage."

"It's charged by our itinerary and what we see but also, how people act and perform on that stage is up to our participants so people bring their own questions to it," Taylor said. "They also evolve as people's appreciation of the value and legacies of the land becomes more central in the fields of architecture. ... Every year, I can't predict what'll happen. That's up to our students. One of the things that's great about the museum here is they're always accommodating of the things that students do."

For more information about the exhibit and Museum of Texas Tech University, go to tinyurl.com/yu499jhn.

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