Museum of the Rockies exhibits highlight human stories

For a simultaneous glimpse into both the beauty of human stories and the impact wrought by humans on planet Earth, look no further than MSU’s very own Museum of the Rockies, which is currently hosting a two-part special exhibit  you may particularly find interesting.

The current exhibit is actually a mixture of two smaller exhibits, following some general themes in terms of the featured pieces. The first section is entitled “Women of Vision, National Geographic Photographers on Assignment.” The exhibit is exactly what the title implies - a collection of various pictures taken by women over the past decade covering a wide variety of issues. That being said, you will likely notice a focus on themes of nature as well as world cultures or even the turmoils of humanity, which is reasonably what you can expect with Natural Geographic. The pieces are organized in such a way that viewers walk by a plaque with the picture and some information about the photographer first, and then are introduced to a selection of their works afterward, which makes the exhibit flow smoothly.

The pieces themselves are fascinating. It had been a while since I'd read anything from National Geographic, so it really caught me off guard to see just how powerful some of the images were. One in particular really caught my attention above all the others. It came from an issue called “Yemen: Days of Reckoning,” and was taken by Stephanie Sinclair. The image depicted a 12 year old boy named Salim Al-Harazi being held by his mother in Sana, and it might not seem the most pertinent until you notice that the little boy’s eyes are gone. He lost them shortly after joining anti-government protests. The plaque at the exhibit gives more details behind the story of the image, but it will honestly be so much more meaningful if you can see it for yourself instead of just hearing it from me. Some other photographers you can find in the exhibit are Beverly Joubert, Diane Cook and Jodi Cobb (for anyone who might recognize the names).

The second portion of the exhibit, which I equally found interesting, was titled “Environmental Impact II” and featured a collection of various artworks all centered around the theme of human impacts on the world. These were not only paintings, mind you. There were also several pieces of metalwork featured and even a panorama.

The panorama was one of the pieces that particularly caught my eye when walking around the exhibit. “The Promised Land” by Michael Kervow is a three-sectioned vista that took up nearly the entirety of a wall all on its own. It featured a dystopian scene of trash and a web of filled-out highways, fitting the description that was given: an allegory for the darker aspects of consumer capitalism.

The other main piece caught my eye partly for how it stuck out compared to the others. However, I personally didn’t really see how it correlated with the description. “Fossil Fuel” by Karen Hackenberg is described as an allegory of the struggles we have embracing clean energy, but the piece itself features what looks like a toy dinosaur and a toy pirate fighting in front of an abandoned quart of oil. I should mention that I do think the painting is very well made, I just failed to see the relation to its description.

Both the “Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment” and “Environmental Impact II” exhibits are included with general admission tickets and will continue to be displayed until December 31. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend checking out this exhibit yourself, since I only barely scratched the surface of what there is to discover.