DOUGLAS BEASLEY SACRED LANDSCAPE

VisionQuesT gallery is pleased to begin the 2010/2011 season by presenting the exhibition of Douglas Beasley “Sacred Landscape”. The opening reception on Thursday 30th September is part of START, the event that marks the beginning of the new season for all the art galleries in Genova.

Douglas Beasley’s personal vision explores the spiritual aspects of people and place and is concerned with how the sacred is recognized and expressed in everyday life. He hopes that his photographs act as prayer-like offerings and are meant as a departure point for the viewer’s own visual or spiritual journey. In the images chosen for the exhibition, mostly MADE in South Dakota in the Lakota-Sioux territories, Beasley specifically wants to convey the feeling, emotion and spirituality of a place by rethinking the expectations of what it means to “see”. The image must emerge, it must arise from the relationship with the subject: searching for the SPIRIT of what is in front of the camera.
See the wind in water on Lake Michigan or through the trees at the Corn Creek Massacre site, South Dakota. A storm approaching the Badlands of South Dakota. Rocks and ice on Lake Superior, Minnesota. A heart shaped rock as a personal tribute to the Wounded Knee victims, South Dakota. Prayer strings and offerings on the trees at Bear Butte, South Dakota or the frame of a Sweatlodge near Pipestone, Minnesota.

If photography is the art of recognising and honouring life in a single moment, then Beasley, by photographing the Sacred Landscape, as Maria Camilla De Palma, Director of Castello D’Albertis – Museum of World Cultures, writes in the essay accompanying the exhibition “has chosen to honour North American Indians, by photographing what is most sacred to them and what better expresses their values and their spirituality: a landscape that is sacred because their ancestors lived there, because it was handed over by their ancestors, and especially because it represents the ancestors themselves." But this exhibit is not only about the past, it is about land that is still considered sacred today and actively used by Native people for ceremonial purposes and spiritual journeys. Douglas’ photographs provide the opening for us, the viewer, to find our own emotional connection to this sacred earth.

Most images on show were created with Type 55 Polaroid film shot with an old wooden 4”x5”view camera. Polaroid Type 55 is an instant development black and white peel-apart film that yealds both a 4”x5” positive print and negative image. Once developed the negative is cleared in a 18% Sodium–Sulfite solution, washed and saved. The rest of the images were created using a Hasselblad medium format camera with Kodak Tri-X 400 – 120mm film. The final images are archival inkjet prints made on watercolor paper.

On Thursday, October 7th , 2010 at 6 p.m. from the skylight that forms the roof of Castello D'Albertis, Museum of World Cultures, the installation of eleven photographs taken in North America by Douglas Beasley, will be presented to the public. Beasley's generous donation allows the Museum to open a new permanent section dedicated to the North American Sacred Landscape.
This event marks the beginning of the project “Vision Quest” which will proceede with a photography course on the enviromental portrait, “People and Places”, held by Clelia Belgrado, Director VisionQuesT gallery, (October 2010 – March 2011) at Castello D’Albertis and a workshop held by Douglas Beasley in the Badlands of South Dakota in the U.S.A. (April - May 2011). This project included the presentation of Beasley’s book and exhibition “Earth Meets Spirit” in Milan, Italy in the spring of 2011 and later on in Rome and other European cities.

After receiving a BFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he also studied Eastern Religions and Native American culture, Douglas Beasley worked for several years for some very prominent commercial photo studios as a photo assistant and darkroom technician. Both helped him develop a appreciation for detail and technical proficiency but left him longing for artistic self-expression. He then opened his own studio in Minneapolis, MN emphasizing commercial and editorial fashion. As a strong feminist, he considers himself the world’s most unlikely fashion photographer. This evolved into shooting throughout the country for various advertising, educational, public service and non-profit clients. He currently works on fine-art based commercial projects around the world. Much of his personal work, including Sacred Sites of the Lakota, Disappearing Green Space, Silent Witness: Genocide and the Landscape, Sacred Places and Earth Meets Spirit are supported by grants and commissions and have been widely exhibited and collected. His work has been published internationally and featured in numerous magazines such as Zoom, The Sun, B&W, PDN and PhotoVision. His first book: “Japan; A Nisei’s First Encounter,” offers insight into his journey to his mother’s Japanese homeland. His second book Earth Meets Spirit will be coming out in late 2010. His Zen & the Art of Photography book should be out late 2011.
As founder and director of Vision Quest Photo Workshops, Beasley provides workshops that emphasize personal expression and creative vision over the mechanics of camera use. He believes in helping each student find their own voice rather than making anonymous ‘pretty pictures’. His workshops are held in places such as Santa Fe, Maine, New York, Hawaii, Guatemala, Peru, Japan, China, Italy, Africa and Bali as well as the Trade River Retreat Center, his cabin/retreat center in Northwest Wisconsin.

DOUGLAS BEASLEY
SACRED LANDSCAPE

1st October - 6th November 2010

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