Letha Wilson, Nevada Sky Moonrise Fold, Valley of Fire Canyon, Washington Coast Forest, 2020, UV prints on aluminum composite material, plexi and wood, PS 32 Addition, Brooklyn
Artist Letha Wilson created three site-specific artworks for the new addition to PS 32 Brooklyn that combine photography and sculpture in unique and unexpected ways. She paired landscape photographs she took herself during trips to the American West with simple geometric shapes and sculptural forms to create a series of dynamic, three-dimensional wall works. The works are intended spark students’ curiosity about the natural world, geography, history, and travel as well as photography and sculpture.
The ground floor piece “Nevada Sky Moonrise Fold” features a long, horizontal photograph of the Nevada skyline that playfully folds and undulates across the top of the main lobby wall and around the corner towards the play yard. The triangles and folds hint at the mathematics and geometry lying beneath our everyday world. The moon is repeated across the image curving down to meet the ground and back up again, referring to the waxing and waning of the moon.
“Valley of Fire Canyon” features photographs of a large rock wall taken in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. The state park derives its name from red sandstone formations, the Aztec Sandstone, which formed from shirting sand dunes 150 million years ago. The incredible geologic history of this site reveals itself in colors, layers and details of these rock formations. Punctuating the imagery are triangle-shaped “tongues” that give the impression the photograph has been cut and peeled down revealing the tile wall behind it. The triangle shapes link back to the simple form that describes a mountain or point in nature.
On the top floor “Washington Coast Forest” features photographs taken in a forest in Cape Disappointment State Park on the southern coastline of Washington. The park is one of several state parks and sites that make up the Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks. Cape Disappointment earned its name when English Captain John Meares attempted but failed to locate the Columbia River in 1788. The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at the Cape in 1805. The lush green foliage of this forest is layered to create an overall sea of leaves in the school hallway. The “tongues” in this piece are half circles, alluding to the beams of sunlight through the trees, spots that pierce through to the forest floor.