“Recollection”
Solo Exhibition, RedLine/S*Park Popup Space, Denver, CO, 2021
Works in this show:
Monument
dear future (film)
Relics
Everything is Fine
Recollection
Solo Exhibition
“In this exhibition, Regan Rosburg reflects on where humanity positions itself, literally and figuratively, in the spectrum of time on our planet. Recollection maintains a cautious optimism that the clues to surviving the climate crisis are present in the ancient species that are still with us today.
In her previous work, Rosburg focused on the intersection of manmade and natural materials to prompt a grief response to both ecological losses and the destruction mankind has inflicted on the natural environment. This work departs from that melancholic space and into a place of careful observation, curiosity, and reverence. Above all, it points to the collective memory and intelligence accessible in the most durable and enduring of species.
While the complex reality of our collective situation is still expressed with unflinching honesty, her new vantage point expands impartially outward along a continuum of past and future, seeing the marvel of evolution through an appreciative lens. She is thus hopeful — given the severity of our multifaceted crisis — we might choose guidance from our plant and animal ancestors who have been here for eons, holding infinite wisdom.”
-Louise Martorano, Executive Director, RedLine
Everything is Fine
2019
Letters
First exhibited in 2019, this letter project has since expanded to include over 200 voices. Guests are encouraged to reflect upon their relationship with the natural world and the impact of climate change, and then to write a letter, poem, thought, fear, hope, or whatever comes to mind.
These letters inspired Rosburg’s short film, dear future, which features the reading of a letter by George Boorujy.
Each bottle was filled with the rain mixture and small amounts of moss.
Patrons were asked to leave a letter pinned to the board in exchange for taking a bottle. In this way, they left a memory and took a memory.
By the end of the exhibition, roughly thirty letters had been added to the board in exchange for the smell of rain.
Monument
HDPE plastic ribbons and wings, virgin plastic, paint, antlers, moss, horse and deer skull, live orchids, rain smell (petrichor), vaporizer.
2021
This piece is a re-imagined version of Omega, which was created in 2017. While Omega was representative of melancholia and manic consumption, Monument is about regeneration, appreciation, and beauty. This work represents the continuum of time and species survival that has adapted and survived on Earth.
“Moss is 350 million years old and has adapted to live in a diverse range of environments. Today’s orchid species are the resilient plant ancestors that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs nearly 65 million years ago!
And rain is probably the most fascinating. The smell of rain (“petrichor”) is a chemical perfume cocktail consisting of ozone, plant compounds, and geosmin. Geosmin is created by soil bacteria, and it began producing this chemical to attract small animals for its spore reproduction…450 million years ago. Think about that… the smell of rain has wafted through the air on this planet, connecting to species for half a billion years. It is part of our collective ancestry […] to respond to that wonderful, cleansing smell.
So I recreated the smell of petrichor to connect us to an ancient, evolved response shared by species all over the world.”
-Regan Rosburg
dear future
video, duration 5 minutes plus 10-minute interlude of rainforest sound
2020
“Over three years, Rosburg gathered over 150 letters from students, artists, activists, scientists, biologists, children, teachers, and everyday people. Narrated by artist George Boorujy, among others, this film was created in response to these letters and how they reveal our close emotional relationship to the natural world…and what we stand to lose.
dear future could be at any point along a continuum. Change is possible through a deep emotional connection to our planet first, followed by actions taken — big and small — by individuals, corporations, institutions, and governments.
Many images in this film reflect the beauty and change that Rosburg has seen over time.”
Relics
Found skulls, plastic-covered branches
2019
Rosburg discovered the plastic-covered branches in the aftermath of a house fire in Eleuthera (Bahamas). Started by lightning, the temperature of the fire was so hot that it melted PVC pipes onto a bougainvillea plant. Rosburg felt that this combination of materials and circumstances was a fitting metaphor for the intersection of man and nature.
The relics themselves have been collected by Rosburg for the past twenty years from different places around the world.
Recollection