A new exhibition open at the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center’s Paul Mesaros Gallery this month features photographs by artist Joshua Dudley Greer, who is visiting professor of photography at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn.

Titled “Point Pleasant,” the exhibition will be open through Oct. 3.

Greer will present a lecture about his work Thursday, Sept. 26, at 5 p.m., in Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (200A). The opening reception for the exhibition will follow at 6 p.m. at the Galleries.

While researching the 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge at Parkersburg, W.Va., and its connection to the now nationally known Mothman legend, Greer learned of the West Virginia Ordnance Works at Point Pleasant. This explosives manufacturing facility was constructed during World War II specifically for the production and storage of TNT and occupied 8,000 acres along the eastern bank of the Ohio River.

At its peak, nearly 500,000 pounds of TNT were produced there each day and stored in a massive array of concrete igloos. The site was officially declared surplus and closed in 1945, after which time much of the land was deeded to the state of West Virginia for the creation of the McClintic State Wildlife Management Area. A large system of ponds and wetlands was constructed as a habitat for waterfowl, migratory birds and other wildlife species.

This area came to be known simply as TNT and developed into a popular hangout for local youth, hunters and fishermen. In the early 1980s, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state investigations revealed that the groundwater, soil and surface water of TNT were heavily contaminated with explosive nitroaromatic compounds including TNT, trinitrobenzene, and dinitrotoluene, as well as arsenic, lead, beryllium and asbestos. The site was placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List in 1983 and extensive cleanup efforts began in 1991. While a large portion of the original facility has been remediated, many of the toxic and explosive contaminants were simply buried on site.

According to Greer, the remnants of the West Virginia Ordnance Works facility survive as relics to our nation’s violent history, while the re-purposed landscape hides much of its true nature just beneath the surface.

“The site that remains outside Point Pleasant is a haunting place of beauty, mystery and violence,” he said. “Using an 8×10 view camera, I am photographing the ruins of a once monumental military-industrial complex as it tangles with the surrounding landscape of forest, fields and swamp. While certain structures offer a glimpse of what has transpired on this site, many of my photographs refer indirectly to violence and environmental neglect through metaphor.

“The repetition of specific imagery is intended to create a labyrinth of sorts, where certain motifs are experienced over and over. The interplay of visibility and invisibility that runs throughout these images alludes to the way in which we commonly misperceive both contamination and beauty through strictly visual means. TNT storage igloos are depicted in a serial typology to convey the massive scale of contemporary weapons production, while the emptiness of the landscape, photographed with a muted palette and diffused light, is meant to evoke a kind of post-apocalyptic environment –one that is at times bleak and somber, yet also strangely resilient and beautiful.”

According to Robert Bridges, curator of the Mesaros Galleries, this exhibition is part of the WVU School of Art & Design’s year-long Global Positioning Studies program, an interdisciplinary visual art and design initiative that positions students at the crossroads between a local sense of place and a global understanding of that place in the world.

“Through direct experience, the Global Positioning Studies program encourages students to engage the world as a fertile ground for art making and critical research,” he said. “In addition to GPS-related courses, the School of Art and Design weaves community and environmentally driven components into much of their programming—including exhibitions and visiting lectures.”

See more on the School of Art & Design GPS page: http://artanddesign.wvu.edu/gps.

Joshua Dudley Greer received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2002 and an Master of Fine Arts, with distinction, from the University of Georgia in 2009. His photographs have appeared in The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Volume 2, Flash Forward 2010, Smithsonian Magazine and Photographer’s Forum. He has received grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, Tennessee Arts Commission and in 2012 was named one of the New Superstars of Southern Art by Oxford American. For more information, see his website at http://jdudleygreer.com/.

Managed and programmed by Curator Robert Bridges and the WVU School of Art & Design, the Mesaros Galleries organize a diverse and exciting schedule of exhibitions throughout the year. The galleries are committed to showing experimental work that is innovative both in terms of media and content. The Mesaros Galleries and the WVU School of Art and Design also host contemporary artists of important or growing reputation who work in all media in the Lecture Series.

All Mesaros Galleries events, including art lectures, exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public.

Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, from noon to 9:30 p.m. The galleries are closed Sundays and University holidays. Special individual or group viewing times may be arranged upon request.

For more information, contact Robert Bridges, curator, at (304) 293-2312.

-WVU-

cl/09/25/13

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.