S. Gayle Stevens

DISAPPEARANCE: ANOTHER SILENT SPRING In 1962 Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published, the title referring to the silence of the birds due to the pesticide DDT. Today, pesticides and the related loss of habitat continue to endanger our pollinators and bird population. My concern for this issue is the inspiration for my recent science-based work. I am sharing examples of three recent pieces from the series begun in 2014, FLIGHT, FOREST, DISAPPEARANCE. Individual plates and installation views represent each of the artworks. FLIGHT, inspired by the work of Etienne Jules Marey, illustrates a pelican in flight. The symbol of Louisiana, the brown pelican, fights habitat loss due to the decimation of thousands of acres of coastal land for pipelines as well as the consequences from the oil spill. FOREST depicts large stands of trees. Deforestation whether from clear cutting or overbuilding leads to habitat loss for pollinators and birds and erosion, which facilitates flooding. DISAPPEARANCE, illustrates ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’, which has affected hives since 2005, and devastated our pollinators. The causes are numerous including habitat loss, mites, and pesticides. Presentation format: FLIGHT is an installation of 18 mammoth plate (20 by 20 inches) photograms of a brown pelican. To illustrate the bird in flight I manipulate the background in the development process. FOREST is an installation of trees consisting of199 wet plate photograms representing trees, each 2 inches wide and the plates vary in height from 4 to 24 inches. DISAPPEARANCE consists of two bodies of work: 100- 2”x2” wet plate tintype photograms of individual bees are displayed with 100 of live flowering plants and mammoth plate tintype photograms with large quantities of dead honeybees. It is my hope that my work will bring awareness to the environmental concerns presented in Rachel Carson’s SILENT SPRING.