Artists Katie Hargrave and Meredith Laura Lynn’s 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 interrogated 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, Florida. 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 a five-channel video filmed at locations visited by these bad outdoorsmen. Each episode of Alone begins with a quote from a conservationist, many from Muir. For their film, 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 disguise the wearer into their background. 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 interrogates how consumerism, mainstream conservation movements, the romanticization of western expansion, and attitude toward nature all interrelate.
About the Artists:
Meredith Laura Lynn and Katie Hargrave are artists and educators who work collaboratively to explore the historic, cultural, and environmental impacts of so-called public land. Their work has been shown at the Knoxville Museum of Art (Knoxville, TN), Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta, GA), the Wiregrass Museum of Art (Dothan, AL), Gadsden Museum of Art (Gadsden, AL), Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN), House Guest Gallery (Louisville, KY), Granary Arts (Ephraim, UT) and has been published by Walls Divide Press (Memphis, TN). Together they have been artists in residence at the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum (St. Augustine, FL) and Signal Fire (Portland, OR).
Hargrave is based in Chattanooga, TN and recent exhibitions include The Front (New Orleans, LA), Neon Heater (Finley, OH) and Alabama Contemporary Art Center (Mobile, AL). She has been an artist in residence at Epicenter (Green River, UT), Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts (Rabun Gap, GA), and the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT).
Lynn is based in Tallahassee, FL. Her solo work has recently been shown at the Morris Graves Museum of Art (Eureka, CA), Miami University of Ohio (Oxford, OH), and the Alexander Brest Gallery (Jacksonville, FL). She has been artist in residence at the Jentel Foundation (Sheridan, WY), the Kimmel Harding Nelson (Nebraska City, NE), and the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT).
Hargrave and Lynn met at the University of Iowa, where they both earned MFAs.
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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.
The Crisp-Ellert Art Museum is an accessible building. If you are a person with a disability and need reasonable accommodation, please contact Phil Pownall at (904) 819-6460. Sign Language Interpreters are available upon request with a minimum of three days’ notice.
For further information on our programming, please visit the website at www.flagler.edu/ceam, or contact interim director Helena Rodriguez at (904) 826-8530 or crispellert@flagler.edu. The museum’s hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 12 to 4 p.m., while classes are in session.
