SPOTLIGHT

"This Land" by Stephen Nowlin

This Land, (Series 2, #1) (2016). 20" x 34" x 1.5" (framed). Digital Inkjet Print, artist’s proof. Image courtesy of the artist.

Top image: EARTH. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona (image detail). Courtesy National Park Service. 
​Bottom image: MARS. Rocknest, Point Lake Area (image detail). Courtesy Curiosity Rover, NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

​By Stephen Nowlin, guest contributor

"This Land" series
The series title references a Woody Guthrie song This Land is Your Land, written in 1940 as a critical response to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America. Guthrie’s song romanced about the American landscape while protesting its privatization and the treatment of Dust Bowl and Depression era refugees. As a tribute to Guthrie’s song, my This Land series puzzles over the flawed concept of divine blessing and the provinciality of an Earth-bound conception of ‘land,’ as well as a reconsideration of what ‘our land’ means in a solar system full of new worlds. The series is a meditation on how science re-scales our perspectives for the better by disrupting persistent fallacies concerning our place in the universe, what is ours, and how we fit in.

"This Land" Series 1

This Land, (Series 2, #2) (2016). Digital Inkjet Print, artist’s proof. Image courtesy of the artist.

Top image: EARTH. Mountain range northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal. NASA images by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. 
​Bottom image: MARS. Jumbled Terrain in Ius Chasma, Mars. Courtesy of NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

This Land (Series 2, #3) (2017). 21" x 20". Epson Inkjet print edition, 1/10. Image courtesy of the artist.

​Earth (left): Slopes of Kilimanjaro Volcano, Tanzania, Africa (detail), 2016. Image source: Google Earth; DigitalGlobe; CNES/Atrium. Latitude:  3° 6'2.62"S;  Longitude: 37°22'33.22"E;  eye alt 18,407ft. 
​Mars (right): Very Bright and Sun-Facing Gully Deposits in Hale Crater (detail), 2009. HIRISE Camera, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image source: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

This Land (Series 2, #4) (2017). 21" x 20". Epson Inkjet print. Image courtesy of the artist.

​Earth (left): North Col of Mount Everest, Tibet. Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center. 
​Mars (right): Gale Crater Layers in a Northeast Section of Mound. HIRISE Camera, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image source: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

This Land (Series 3) #1 (2018). 22" x 22" x 1.5". Digital Inkjet Print, edition 2 of 10. Image courtesy of the artist.

​Left image: Earth, Anza-Borrego Desert, 2017 (detail). This image of the Anza-Borrego Desert in California, USA, was captured from space on June 30, 2017. Anza-Borrego Desert lies in a unique geologic setting along the western margin of the Salton Trough, a major topographic depression with the Salton Sink having elevations of 200 ft (61 m) beneath the level of Earth’s water oceans. Credit: Google Earth/Digital Globe.
Middle image: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 2014 (detail). An image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft navigation camera on August 7, 2014. 67P is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the outer solar system’s Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period around the sun of 6.45 years. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/ DASP/IDA. 
Right image: MARS, 2017 (detail). An image of gullies in a crater within Newton Crater was taken on by the HiRise Camera aboard the NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, February 26, 2017. Newton is a large crater with a diameter close to 300 km. It is located south of the planet's equator in the heavily cratered highlands of Terra Sirenum in the Phaethontis quadrangle. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

This Land (Series 3) #2 (2018). 22" x 22" 1.5". Digital Inkjet Print, edition #1 of 10. Image courtesy of the artist.

​Top image: EARTH, 2015 (detail). Data from Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, was transmitted to Earth on August 15, 2015, by a Digital Globe Earth orbiting satellite. Between six and nine million years ago, stretching and thinning of the Earth's crust caused movement along the Teton fault. The west block along the fault line rose to form the Teton Range, creating the youngest mountain range in the Rocky Mountains. Data: Google Earth/Digital Globe. 
Middle image: MARS, 2017 (detail). Gullies in a Crater within Newton Crater, 2017. Data from Newton Crater was transmitted to Earth by the HiRise Camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, February 26, 2017. Newton is a large crater with a diameter close to 300 km. It is located south of the planet's equator in the heavily cratered highlands of Terra Sirenum in the Phaethontis quadrangle. At their closest approach, the landscapes of Mars and Earth are 33.9 million miles apart. Data: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. 
Bottom image: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 2014 (detail). Data from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was transmitted to Earth by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft navigation camera on August 7, 2014. 67P is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period around the sun of 6.45 years. At the time this data was transmitted, the landscapes of Comet 67P and Earth were over 251 million miles apart. Data: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/ DASP/IDA.

This Land (Series 3, #3) (2018). 22" x 22" x 1.5". Digital Inkjet Print, edition 2 of 10. Image courtesy of the artist.

Left image: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 2014 (detail). An image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft navigation camera on August 7, 2014. 67P is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period around the sun of 6.45 years. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/ DASP/IDA.
Middle image: MARS, 2017 (detail). Gullies in a Crater within Newton Crater, 2017. An image of Newton Crater was taken on by the HiRise Camera aboard the NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, February 26, 2017. Newton is a large crater with a diameter close to 300 km. It is located south of the planet's equator in the heavily cratered highlands of Terra Sirenum in the Phaethontis quadrangle. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Right image: EARTH, 2015 (detail). An image of Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, was taken on August 15, 2015, from a Digital Globe Earth imaging satellite. Between six and nine million years ago, stretching and thinning of the Earth's crust caused movement along the Teton fault. The west block along the fault line rose to form the Teton Range, creating the youngest mountain range in the Rocky Mountains. Credit: Google Earth/Digital Globe.

Stephen Nowlin is a maker/curator whose practice explores the intersection of art and science. A Vice President at ArtCenter College of Design, he organizes exhibitions in the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery. Nowlin earned an MFA degree in Fine Art at ArtCenter in 1978, and a BFA in Design at California Institute of the Arts, 1971. His curatorial archive is located here. Read about his latest curatorial project "SKY" here.

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