For the Gods & Remnants

IC: Priscilla Briggs - 'Temple Flower Market, Varanasi,' Archival Ink Print, 18” x 27”

 

In For the Gods Briggs’s photographs relate ancient beliefs about caste and karma to contemporary economic and environmental issues in India. In Remnants, Betsy Ruth Byers’ paintings meditate on the changing landscape at Glacier National Park.

 
For the Gods
While visiting the Golden Temple in Varanasi, Briggs lifted a garland of flowers from a basket of offerings to breathe in the aroma. The temple guide stopped her short, “The smell is not for you, it is for the gods.”
This exhibition of photographs considers various facets of India’s economic and social structure in the wake of globalization and rapid growth. While the caste system is technically illegal, it is embedded in centuries of social structure and religious belief. The already wide contrast between rich and poor has been compounded by globalization and its effect on the environment. Through groupings of images, Briggs photographs represent environmental and economic contrasts.

Priscilla Briggs
 
 
Remnants
This series, Remnants, was developed through a combination of direct observation at Glacier National Park and indirect reference of historical images from the USGS Repeat Photography Project Archive. Through the process of repeatedly returning to the same subject matter as a point of reference, Byers aims to hone a nuanced understanding of our subjective experience of place. The act of painting itself manipulates time, allowing Byers to transpose multiple perspectives into a singular, abstracted space. Utilizing paint to mimic glacial processes such as melt and flow, her paintings seek to intertwine past and present events.

This activity was made possible by an Artist Grant from the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council with funds provided by the Mcknight Foundation.

Betsy Ruth Byers