CANYON

Canyon is a pair of handmade accordion books enclosed in a translucent cover of USGS maps surveying the larger site of the small canyon before and after the Kingsley Dam was constructed. One book, opened vertically, reveals the Y axis of the canyon. The other book, opened horizontally, reveals the x axis of the canyon. The covers of both books offer a contrast to the darker images within by depicting the grasslands that characterize the region.

The text inside reads: Walking on the bright High Plains homelands of the Oglala Lakota, surrounded by dry grasses, yucca, and prickly pear, one could accidently slip into the yawning crevice of Butterfly Canyon south of the now dammed North Platte River. A shadowy micro-habitat with its own aquifer, the intermittent streams support deciduous plants, mosses, and lichens on the crumbling rocks and sand. Roots stretch down stabilizing the restless earth forming the canyon walls. In Underland: A Deep Time Journey, Robert Macfarlane recalls Stephen Graham’s critique of our cartographic, horizontal perspective that allows us to ignore the subsurface world. Macfarlane urges us to under-stand— pass beneath to comprehend, to dis-cover— reveal by excavation, and to descend for revelations. As I stood still photographing in the canyon, a bit of the Brule clay wall released itself from behind the roots, reminding me of the rocks’ animacy and that geologic time includes past, present, and future.