Cyanide Leaching Fields, Ray, Arizona Possibly 1985 - 1990

Curator: David Maisel’s "Cyanide Leaching Fields, Ray, Arizona" presents a stark aerial view. It’s a monochrome photograph, deceptively beautiful in its geometric patterning. Editor: Deceptive is right. My first impression is one of something alien—a landscape scarred, almost intentionally, with what looks like organized decay. Curator: Indeed. The composition highlights the rigid structures imposed upon the land, revealing a tension between human intervention and natural processes. Consider the tonality; it emphasizes the material transformation at play. Editor: Exactly. We are looking at the aftereffects of extraction, the industrial processes rendered visible—the labor, the chemicals, and the earth itself becoming a resource. It's about consumption and consequence. Curator: It evokes a sense of sublime horror, doesn’t it? The photograph serves as a signifier, pointing to the environmental cost of our material desires. Editor: Yes, it forces us to confront the true cost, both tangible and abstract, of resource extraction. It’s a powerful indictment. Curator: A brutal landscape, yet one rendered with undeniable compositional rigor. Editor: Art speaking truth to power, one material at a time.