API 07932684 Levelland, TX 2012

Curator: Mishka Henner’s photographic work, "API 07932684 Levelland, TX," created in 2012, offers a stark look at the West Texas landscape. Editor: It strikes me as quite bleak; an almost uniform ochre is punctuated by a lone, stark oil well. The texture created by the scrubby vegetation is the only real variation in the picture plane. Curator: Henner uses photography in a very specific way here. This isn't just about visual pleasure, it’s about drawing attention to the material and economic practices shaping these landscapes. Think about how the aerial perspective, probably captured via satellite imagery, is implicated in the processes of surveying, extraction, and monitoring tied to oil production. Editor: True, that God's-eye view flattens everything, rendering the scene almost abstract, an arrangement of color and form dominated by vertical and horizontal lines of what looks like a dirt path. I suppose that makes it feel like a stage or some sort of game board. The oil pump seems almost like a lonely player. Curator: Absolutely, and I believe Henner is also prompting us to contemplate the environmental costs connected to the constant consumption and production of fossil fuels and their effect on this seemingly barren land. Editor: I think it’s fascinating how the limited palette underscores the environmental impact. The artist uses visual elements like that desolate tonality to highlight these pressing issues. I hadn’t considered the compositional implications so directly. Curator: Hopefully, reflecting on the industrialization of landscape moves visitors towards a renewed evaluation of their consumption and the hidden geography it occupies. Editor: It does highlight how our demands have restructured entire landscapes and reminds us of the intricate balance, or imbalance, we perpetuate.