On View from November – December 2023, Celebration of the Hand: Mother Wound features 14 aerial photographs from local photographer Russel Daniels. The images depict mineral extraction and waste in the Western United States.
Russel Albert Daniels is an artist and photographer based out of Salt Lake City. His work stands in the cross current of art, reportage, and re-indigenization. His craft places storytelling at the forefront of a rich photographic practice which aims to bring visibility to Native American and underserved communities. His projects explore the ways in which identity, place, and history illuminate the aftermath of manifest destiny.
To learn more about this installation, the public is invited to join Craft Lake City for a virtual “Lunch & Learn” discussion on Friday, November 17 from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. In this public online event, attendees can learn more about this exhibition while hearing from the participating artist, Russel Daniels, about the work they created. The discussion will also include guest speaker and UMFA curator Emily Lawhead, and will be moderated by SLUG Magazine‘s Parker Mortensen. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear in-depth details about Craft Lake City’s work in the community, share ideas and ask questions about the new exhibition in downtown Salt Lake City.
Watch the Virtual Discussion About the Exhibition Below:
Celebration of the Hand, made possible with support from The Center for the Living City and The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change, is a seasonal outdoor exhibition designed to enhance and reflect Salt Lake City’s cultural district through the work of Utah artists. Informed by activist Jane Jacobs’ fascination with self-organized urbanism, Celebration of the Hand exhibitions focus on conveying central themes and ideas, making them relevant to our community through art.
Craft Lake City commissions works of art from local Utah artists for these rotating exhibitions. All Celebration of the Hand curation projects are displayed in fourteen metal frames adjacent to the sidewalks in downtown Salt Lake City. They are located on the north and south sides of Broadway (300 South) between 200 West and Main Street. These exhibitions are open to the public 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and are free of charge.
Preview the Artwork Below:
White Mesa Uranium Mill and Repository near the Ute Mountain Ute reservation and Blanding in southeast Utah. The Abajo Mountains in the background.
Mexican Hat uranium disposal cell on the Navajo Nation in southeast Utah. San Juan River in the background.
Out buildings at the Daneros uranium mine east of the Colorado River and west of the Ute Mountain Ute community in southeast Utah.
Fracking waste water pools on Glen Bench Road above the White River in the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah.
Fracking sites near the White River in northeast Utah.
The White River winds its way through the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah. Fracking sites, the Deseret Power Plant and the Uinta Mountains in the background.
Deseret Power Plant in Bonanza, Utah.
Fracking sites and the Deseret Power Plant in the Uinta Basin in northeast Utah.
Colorado River Indian Tribes fallowed farmland near the Colorado River in west Arizona.
Dust devils on fallowed Colorado River Indian Tribes farmland near the Colorado River in west Arizona.
The Gene Pumping Plant near Lake Havasu in west Arizona, lifts water hundreds of feet to the Colorado River Aqueduct system, which delivers it to Los Angeles, San Diego and other cities.
Asarco Mission Complex copper mine at the southern border of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation near Tucson, Arizona.
Asarco Mission Complex copper mine at the southern border of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation near Tucson, Arizona.
A cobalt colored pool at a Asarco Mission Complex copper mine near Tucson, Arizona.
Photographs commissioned and published by: High Country News, Mother Jones, ProPublica, & The Water Desk. Aerial support from: Lighthawk & EcoFlight.
About Craft Lake City:
Founded in 2009 by Angela H. Brown, Executive Editor of SLUG (Salt Lake UnderGround) Magazine, Craft Lake City® is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with the mission to educate, promote and inspire local artisans while elevating the creative culture of the Utah arts community through science, technology and art. Craft Lake City strives to further define the term “Craft,” by modernizing the definition for handmade creativity.
craftlakecity.com @craftlakecity
Craft Lake City’s year-round programming is supported in part by the residents of Salt Lake County through the Zoo, Arts & Parks (ZAP) Program, the Salt Lake Arts Council, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, and Utah Arts & Museums, with funding from the State of Utah and the National Endowment for the Arts.
About the Temporary Museum of Permanent Change:
The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change is a community based, participatory project that uses the ever-changing development processes underway in Salt Lake City as catalysts to animate city life. The Museum engages a variety of audiences using a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach that includes performance art and video production, visual art, urban archaeology, anthropology, local history, existing businesses and ongoing deconstruction and construction processes as spectacles for people of all ages. Together these elements provide teachable moments in our efforts to manage and celebrate change. This museum has no specific address. Rather it is a construction of ideas, installations and illuminations that comprise a new way of seeing our city.
About the Center for Living City:
The Center for the Living City’s purpose is to expand the understanding of the complexity of contemporary urban life and through it, promote increased civic engagement among people who care deeply for their communities. The Center provides portals for community engagement through the lens of urban ecology to further the understanding of the interconnected human and ecological systems in our communities. The Center’s multi-disciplinary approach to community engagement is applied through educational programs, collaborative projects, fellowships, on-line portals, workshops and publications.
centerforthelivingcity.org @centerforthelivingcity
