Jessica Hays
The Sun Sets Midafternoon
Project Statement
Wildfires are raging across the western United States, burning up increasingly large swaths of land every year. While fire is a natural part of many ecosystems, the increasing presence of larger, faster, and hotter fires is a reminder of the rapidly changing environment. This work explores solastalgia, which describes emotional and existential distress caused by negative environmental change, generally experienced by people with lived experience closely related to the land. Lands integral to our identity, our livelihoods, and our wellbeing are shifting and changing without notice or control. The experience of a wildfire is all consuming. It crowds out your vision. The pillar of smoke is unmistakable as anything else. Our communities are facing collective traumas as we wait for news about the spread and containment, constantly refreshing web pages and databases. Although these are localized examples of wildland fire and the trauma that follows, collectively the scale of these events is unfathomable. The day to day struggles of normal life continues on as fires rage outside our windows, setting our lives in a scene of gray oppression.
These photographs examine the immediate aftermath of megafires on surrounding communities and what the experience of local fires are like, interweaving narratives of personal struggle, climate change, and collective trauma.
Artist Biography
Jessica L Hays is a conceptual photographer, alternative process printmaker, and curator who spends here time between Montana and Chicago, IL. Her intimate work draws on personal experience to communicate ubiquitous human experiences, tackling topics like mental health, trauma, relationship, loss, and loneliness. Grounded in the American west, she explores relationships between people, places, and experiences of being deeply connected to ones surroundings. Her work blurs the lines between the uniquely individual and collective experiences.
Hays works in a variety of processes including pigment printing, handmade artist books, and historic photo processes, such as platinum palladium, cyanotype, gum bichromate, and experimental silver based processes. She has lectured on topics of mental health and alternative process photography at conferences, mental health summits, and as a guest speaker in classrooms. Her work has been shown nationally in galleries such as Art Intersection (Phoenix, Arizona), PhotoPlace Gallery (Middlebury, Vermont) the Holter Museum of Art (Helena, Montana) and Miri Gallery (Salt Lake City). Hays has been published Cyanotype, The Blueprint in Contemporary Practice by Christina Z. Anderson, the Hand Magazine, and many others. Currently, she is working on two long term projects, the first about places of healing, and the second exploring how wildfires affect the land and people who depend on it. Hays aims to explore the long lasting effects of the land on human psyche from trauma to restoration.
Connect
https://www.jessicahaysart.com
Jessicahaysphotography@gmail.com