WASTESCAPES
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ARTIFACTS FROM A SOLO PANDEMIC PRACTICE​
Read about the origin of this project here >>
View the full Wastescapes gallery and read through the journal entries here >>
Wastescapes was a solo endeavor turned collaborative project between Marie and Nick while they lived together during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marie’s solo work began as a moving ritual and a form of ceremonial practice—a practice in witnessing the weight of waste, mourning abandonment, communing with the wild, and healing in the wake of decay. Over time, Nick began filming and photographing Marie and the sites they visited to document the practice. Later, Marie began experimenting with overlaying Nick’s photographs with film stills, and those new images became artifacts of her practice. They are photographs of wastescapes, abandoned places, rubble and rubbish, and natural landscapes, combined with film stills from movement improvisations Marie performed in or near each location. The act of layering the images allowed her internal state of being to emerge and live on the flesh of her skin and body— her body grief-stricken by our collective turmoil and plagued by a chronic illness invisible in outward appearance. Layered together, the images coalesce, dissolving the notion that we are somehow disconnected from nature or the waste we accumulate and leave behind in our wake. In the book, the images are interspersed and paired with journal entries, stories, and rehearsal notes Marie wrote throughout the duration of this multi-year-long process. This work centers empathy and reciprocity, and invites us to be in relationship with our more-than-human world.
Book of images and journal entries on display at the Tabor Art Gallery September 3rd through October 18th 2024.
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Images printed on glass on display and for sale at the Hilltown Open Studio Tour on September 30th and October 1st, 2023.
COLLABORATOR
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Nick Haas is a Lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard. He is currently stationed in Philadelphia, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in Joint Professional Military Education through the Naval War College. As part of his active duty service, Nick also serves as a Japanese interpreter, most recently on board the CGC MELLON and CGC OLIVER HENRY. Prior to joining the Coast Guard, Nick was the owner and operator of Singapore's only American dive-bar-meets-karaoke joint, Skinny’s Lounge. Nick is also passionate about serving the local community outside his work obligations. He’s spent many years as a volunteer fireman and is an associate board member on the William Penn Foundation. While he has not professionally pursued it, Nick has a lifelong love for film and photography. He studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy and photography at Bennington College, where he received his B.A. in 2010.
photographs and film stills by Marie and Nick Haas