SCRAP: California Compliant

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Joseph Rossano, in his massive wall installation SCRAP-California Compliant (2014) has compiled for the viewer a modern hieroglyph to explain one aspect of our relationship with nature. Individual sections speak as single ideas and join as blocks of information to further emphasize that decisions come at an expense and therefore, these decisions should be made wisely and with a recognition of their ultimate cost.

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Materials act as a second layer of information to this story. Deft handling of tar and whitewash portray a nature that is abundant and vibrant while also one that is covered and ignored. Using cast-off wood and tar to frame the idea of that which falls away serves to further underscore our disregard. Texts by London and Longfellow provide insight into a silent population while the large scale of the artwork overwhelms us with an urgency to act.

 

Robert Yoder

Guest curator, "Neo-Naturalists", Museum of Northwest Art