Two years ago, deep in Aspen’s smuggling mines, artist Coleen Smith looked at a human-made mining site and saw an opportunity for change. What if we could magically transform it into a natural part of the mountain?”
Her first tour there, along with a residency at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, and a lifelong interest in geology and extensive additional research, led to a film exhibition that premiered inside the mine in September of that year. gave inspiration to the group.
Smith projected videos of wildlife, mountains and mining materials onto the walls of a dank tunnel dug into a hillside. The 2022 pop-up, coordinated by the Aspen Art Museum, was open to the public for one night only.
And this winter, Smith expanded that concept into a winter exhibit at the museum. The show, titled “From Mines to Caves,” will feature his 10-minute film, which combines pop-up clips and unreleased material.
“I think this whole movie is kind of a spell to bring things back to a more natural state. In a way, that’s my wish for the entire planet,” Smith said.
Like the pop-up that inspired it, this winter exhibition focuses on transformation. Located in the museum’s underground gallery, the dim lighting and echoing sounds create a cave-like atmosphere.
The new show also features other works by Smith, including a giant dripping candle in the center of the room. The wax layer evokes the earth’s topography and melts and changes as the wick burns. Other works reference gemstones and trees.
Mr Smith said the exhibition was “an invitation to truly love our environment” and that unless humans take meaningful action to combat climate change, “our time here is finite. “It’s a reminder that there might be,” he said.
“If this planet didn’t allow it, we wouldn’t exist,” Smith said. “And that’s the kind of consideration that we need to have for the really important places that we live in, and that’s becoming more and more important every day.”
The exhibition will be on display until early April.
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