Crowd Welcomes Strangely Beautiful ‘WILDLAND’
A large crowd of about 175 people gathered to appreciate the multifaceted exhibition of “WILDLAND: Ethan Turpin's Collaborations on Fire and Water” on Jan. 9 at the app Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The exhibition, which explores the complex relationships between fire, water and ourselves, is open through March 22.
The exhibit includes hands-on stereographs that imagine the early origins of climate change with current symptoms; and Future Mountain, an interactive fire, water and climate model that depicts a watershed in the Central California Sierra. Several forest thinning illustrations and graphs explore water storage and the total amount of water used by plants.
“I have brought together diverse content in the exhibition from projects I have pursued over the last 11 years,” Turpin says. “The more I learn about burn cycles and recovery the more I have focused on climate change, realizing it is at the center of so many of my projects.”
By far the most popular part of the exhibition is Turpin’s fire and regrowth time-lapse footage, “TimeSpace Fire,” taken from Santa Barbara County locations, including the Sedgwick Reserve and Arroyo Hondo Preserve. Following the Alisal Fire in October 2021, Turpin began installing cameras to take photos every 15 minutes along the Arroyo Hondo trails. Each month he would return to change the batteries and experienced the rapid changes in returning plants.
“First were the wild cucumber vines spreading in all directions like tangled green spider legs,” he says. “Then the native morning glory vines climbed the burnt chaparral stalks to produce chains of remarkable white flowers. Meanwhile, the sprouts of chamise and manzanita emerged from black burls undeterred. These waves of native fire followers had their debut moment in the sun. Every week, I was met with unexpected and strangely beautiful imagery.”