MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

September 19, 2022

This week we recognize    Bremner Benedict  Bremner Benedict, and her Hidden Waters Series.

Benedict’s projects center on the role that landscape plays in the human experience. Her focus is on unrecognized, under-valued yet important elements of the natural world. Her earlier projects, range from the role of landscape in creating memory - Distant Places; to electrical towers interruption of the American Western landscape - Gridlines; to a child’s imaginary play in natural history dioramas - Field Trip, Re-Imagining Eden. Benedict’s recent work, Hidden Waters, combines art and science to envision the impacts of climate change and overuse on endangered arid-land springs in the American West.

"Since prehistoric times springs have been key to humanity’s survival. Unfortunately arid and semi-arid land springs, ciénegas, and their aquifers in North America are endangered and disappearing at a rate that continues to increase as the water crisis in the West prevails across lands that are the driest they have been in 1,200 years. Being an artist who is passionate about the water crisis in the West, I am drawn to their story as unseen yet essential details whose importance is misunderstood."

"Living on the Colorado Plateau I was struck by the contrast between spring-fed oases and their parched surroundings. I noticed how a landscape of drought and aquifer overuse can drain color out of the environment. The toned colors of Maynard Dixon’s Western landscape paintings provided my inspiration to use color to imply the vulnerability and precarious future of dryland springs. This series is an intersection of art and ecology where I interpret scientific data visually and viscerally to humanize its complexity, while at the same time addressing a wider view of climate change and its impacts on dryland springs by making them feel accessible and personal in order to encourage their stewardship."

"Currently there is a lack of public information on the importance of these waters and the need for their protection; conservation is inconsistent at best. Springs continue to hold vital clues to the health and longevity of the underground aquifers we depend on and the loss of these significant ecosystems will continue to threaten our ability to live in dry places. If we want any chance to combat the climate crisis, then the importance of documenting these ecological sites before they are gone, and capitalizing on these opportunities to raise awareness, cannot be understated." 

Bremner Benedict's     photographs have been featured at Fidelity Art Boston; Center for Photography, Tucson, Arizona; Florida Museum of Photographic Arts; New Mexico Museum of Art; Decordova Museum of Art and Sculpture, Massachusetts; Harvard's Fogg Museum, Boston; and George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York. Solo exhibitions include Florida Museum of Photographic Arts; Griffin Museum of Photography at Stoneham, Winchester, Massachusetts; Texas Woman’s University, Denton; and Philadelphia Print Center. Her Hidden Waters archive resides at the Museum of Art & Environment, Reno Nevada. Recent awards include Juror’s Award, Karen Haas Juror, Conversations with the Land, Center for Creative Photography, 2021; Massachusetts Cultural Council Finalist, 2021; Juror’s Honorable Mention, 2021; Art and Science 2, A. Smith Gallery, 2021; Critical Mass Top 200, 2019; the FENCE, New England, 2019; Legacy Award, Griffin Museum of Photography; two Puffin Foundation Grants; Museum of Northern Arizona artist residency; and solo exhibitions at Texas Women’s University, and Philadelphia Print Center. Benedict is a member of Blue Earth Alliance. Photographer Mark Klett chose her work Quitobaquito Springs for inclusion in his up-coming book, Wild Visions. bremner-benedict.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Bremner Benedict,Hidden Water Series; portrait of the artist below.