DE | MARCATION surveys the contemporary photographic landscape of creative practice by artists in the state of Utah as they navigate new territory in the global dialogue of imagemaking. The works delineate new boundaries and challenge the photographic traditions of the West as a hallowed land—the landscape as a rugged vista to be conquered and tamed under the banner of Manifest Destiny and the settling of Zion.
Early photographic surveys of the American West explored the physical territory; this exhibition examines the conceptual landscape of creative practice by photographic artists spanning the vast spaces of Utah. The artists have strong connections to the state and their images represent a diversity beyond geographic boundaries; they interrupt convention and draw new lines. Intended to serve as a record of a historical moment, the exhibition reflects the dynamics of shifting cultural narratives and our relationship to place in a richly interconnected world. It represents not only the current state of photographic art, but also its future.
Portfolio box, letterpress printed title, index and essay pages created in collaboration with Red Butte Press at the University of Utah.
About Amy Jorgensen
Amy Jorgensen is an interdisciplinary artist whose diverse practice involves creating conceptually immersive works that mine historical and contemporary perspectives to explore intersecting narratives of the body, desire, violence, and power. With solo exhibitions at LA><Art in Los Angeles, Elizabeth Houston Gallery in New York City, and Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Jorgensen’s work has been exhibited in over 75 exhibitions, including the historic all-woman FAIR during Miami Art Week, GuatePhoto Festival, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Oceanside Museum of Art, AIPAD, and Brigham Young University Museum of Art. A recipient of multiple grants, Jorgensen and her work have been featured in Artnet News, Huffington Post, NY Arts Magazine, Don’t Take Pictures, Dialogue, At Length, and others. Dedicated to the arts as a maker, educator, and facilitator, Jorgensen is an Associate Professor at Snow College, Director and Curator at Granary Arts, and a member of the Utah Arts Council Board of Directors.
About Edward Bateman
Edward Bateman directs the Photography and Digital Imaging area at the University of Utah. His innovative use of 3D computer modeling combined with photography has been widely written about and included in six textbooks. He contributed both text and images to Seizing the Light: A Social and Aesthetic History of Photography by Robert Hirsch. Bateman and his work have been profiled in Printmaking Today, the authorized journal of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in the UK. Mechanical Brides of the Uncanny, a signed and numbered book of his work was published by Nazraeli Press. Bateman has exhibited internationally in over 25 countries and is in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Victoria & Albert Museum, China Printmaking Museum, and The Getty Research Institute, among others.
About Marnie Powers-Torrey
Marnie Powers-Torrey received an MFA in photography from the University of Utah, and a BA in English and Philosophy from Boston College. She is the Managing Director of the Book Arts Program at the University of Utah, an Associate Librarian at the J. Willard Marriott Library, and is the Master Printer for Red Butte Press.
As a maker, Powers-Torrey places equal value on process and product. The aesthetic and concept of a piece are inherent to its mode of manufacture, materiality, and the space and time in which it’s made. Through her studio practice— the investigation of materials & methods— Powers-Torrey finds and creates meaning steered by the processes she chooses to employ. Through making, she discovers the artifact. Through the artifact, she communicates intention. Her concepts are driven by the everyday—both the routine and the extraordinary, experienced through the multiple modalities of the real and the virtual, the direct, and the mediated. She has learned how critical it is to integrate making into her busy life, and for her, the assembly of materials and exploration of ideas is synonymous with living.
About Red Butte Press
Established in 1984, the Red Butte Press at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah honors and extends the traditions of fine press printing, producing finely crafted, limited editions.
Red Butte Press faculty and staff—Crane Giamo, Annie Hillam, Marnie Powers-Torrey, Jonathan Sandberg, and Emily Tipps—produced the box and non-photographic content. The text is set in Akzidenz-Grotesk and printed from photopolymer plates on Crane’s Lettra paper. Designed collaboratively by the curators and publishers, the clamshell box is covered in Asahi bookcloth with Fabriano Tiziano pastedowns. The measurement of the interruption in the box wall is derived from the ratio between the borders of the state and those of Utah’s notch.