The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum (CEAM) and Flagler College will welcome artists and collaborators Katie Hargrave and Meredith Laura Lynn back to campus for their exhibition “Bad Outdoorsmen.” Curated by former director Julie Dickover, the show will be on view from Jan. 20 through April 19. Lynn will lead a walkthrough of the exhibition on Friday, Feb. 7, from 5 to 8 p.m. during the First Friday Artwalk. This event is free and open to the public.
The artists’ project-based collaborative practice is grounded in an inquiry of so-called “public lands.” They use materials such as tents, coolers and postcards as sculptural bases that they manipulate with photographic imagery. Drawn to historical landscape photography, environmental literature and social media images within their studio research, the artists often collapse many forms and sources within one body of work.
During their 2022 CEAM Artist Residency at Flagler College, Hargrave and Lynn continued their research into influential environmentalists. Through previous projects, they had researched the legacy of John Muir, who came to north Florida in 1866. After spending time in the archives of the St. Augustine Historical Society, they expanded their research to include John Audubon and Billy Bartram, two other significant figures in the history of American conservation movements who spent time in St. Augustine.
“Bad Outdoorsmen” chronicles the failures and difficulties these men encountered in this region and contextualizes their legacies in contemporary pop culture representations of the outdoors, particularly reality survivalist television shows.
In their exhibition at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Hargrave and Lynn continue to examine their own relationship to “public land” through a mock audition tape for the reality TV series “Alone.” Exploring the disparities between the survivalists in “Alone” and conservationists Muir, Bartram and Audubon, Hargrave and Lynn created five-channel video recorded at locations visited by these “bad outdoorsmen.”
Each episode of “Alone” begins with a quote from a conservationist, many from Muir. For their video, the artists gathered stills from the episodes of “Alone” starting with Muir quotes, cut the images into a leaf-like camouflage pattern and sewed them onto full body suits.
They then fashioned these articles after traditional ghillie suits, designed to camouflage the wearer. Hargrave and Lynn recorded themselves visiting sites where Audubon camped and Bartram tried to start a homestead.
The show also features a wall-based textile installation of pages from Muir’s text, abstracted with drawings from Bartram and Audubon to explore the tropes and myths that contribute to our understanding of the outdoors. Through sculpture and video installation, their work explores how consumerism, mainstream conservation movements, the romanticization of western expansion and attitude toward nature all interrelate.
CEAM programming is supported through grants from the Dr. JoAnn Crisp-Ellert Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council, the St. Johns Cultural Council and voco, an IGH hotel.