Michael Davis

Ryan Mine, (Rare Earth) Death Valley

2021

I began to incorporate these Landsat images into a new body of work titled "Rare Earth." Each Rare Earth artwork includes an archival image of a specific mine rendered in classic 3D (anaglyph) off-registration referencing mid-century exuberant optimism, geopolitical history, cultural signifiers, symbolic design patterns and phenomena The formal and elegant composition belies the actual relationship of the cause and effect of rare earth mining. --- The Rare Earth artworks grew out of my investigative research in 2009 while working on a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) application. That resulted in a body of work titled “Imagos”– photo/journalism images that capture a moment in history and immediately place the viewer at that moment in time. While navigating Landsat records of Earth's land surfaces from space I discovered large areas of disturbed landscapes. These were immense open pit mines at numerous locations world wide, many of which were Rare Earth mines or REEs. The mining and processing to separate the rare earth elements is an environmental conundrum. On one hand these elements are in extremely high demand and necessary for electric vehicles...

The coloration and construction of the artwork projects this disk toward the viewer and floats the work off the wall both visually and psychologically. Doak was an aviation visionary...

The global hunger for raw materials such as oil and coal, metals, gravel, sand and other resources is growing unabated. We dig holes in the ground to tap into the Earth's natural res...

Incredible Late 20th Century Postmodern Contemporary Abstract signed Mixed Media large scale 3D collage by artist Martha Holden. Beautiful condition, keeping in mind that this is vin...