This collaboration with Meredith Laura Lynn was installed at the Gadsden Museum of Art in March 2022.

The exhibition explores 19th century American environmental writer John Muir and his continued legacy in the Southeast. Included in the exhibition are new sculptures, videos, and collages made with imagery we captured during a visit to the John Muir Trail in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.

The artwork takes John Muir’s 1000 Mile Walk to the Gulf as a starting point. This 19th century travel diary documents Muir’s difficulty walking through the rural South. Though the writer’s racist and sexist worldview is apparent, mainstream conservationists find ways to apply it for more positive outcomes, without considering the complications of these decisions. One such example is that they use his words to advocate for the preservation of the trail he walked through the Southeast. What does it mean to valorize someone so complicated?

We attempt make the experience of the John Muir Trail unfamiliar through creating sculptures, videos, and collages which use mirrors and reflections to distort the landscape. Through the work, we explore the overlap of consumerism, mainstream conservation movements, the romanticization of westward expansion, and attitudes towards the outdoors.