Exhibition Reviews | Visual Arts

Where The Rivers End: Artists Unite to Honor Great Salt Lake

A photograph titled "Sandpipers" by Walker, capturing a large flock of sandpipers in flight over a reflective water surface, with their silhouettes mirrored below.

Linda Dalton Walker, “Sandpipers”

The answer to the question, “What is a lake?” depends on whom you ask. To a farmer, it might be a reservoir, storage for irrigation water. To a politician, a recreational resource for marinas full of boats. To the Romantic painters of the 19th century, a lake was most likely a subject of evocative landscapes.

For photographer Linda Dalton Walker and poet Sarah Ann Woodbury and a host of activist organizations, it may as well not be seen at all unless as what ecological scientists call a niche: an identifiable home to a family of plant and animal species that is part of the continuity of all life on Earth. Walker and Woodbury chose to view one such vessel, Great Salt Lake, through a particular lens: its three natural tributaries: the Bear, Weber, and Jordan Rivers, each of which approaches it through a unique terrain.

It didn’t turn out to be easy. Due to shrinkage of the Lake and diminution of its sources, the openings into the Lake are as much as seven miles further downstream than was traditionally the case, the difference made up of manmade canals, invasive plant species—essentially weeds—that often proved impenetrable, and miles of treacherous mud that can trap a person as easily as a migrating bird, with the same fatal results.

A wide-angle view of a gallery exhibition, showcasing framed artwork on partition walls. The works include photographs and paintings of nature and landscapes.

Installation view of Water Pilgrimage: Where the Rivers End

At the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, meanwhile, a plan to refurbish the Pilar Pobil Celebration Gallery, which was to take place in January and February, had to be delayed, which gave its Visual Arts Program Manager, folklorist Michael Christensen, the opportunity to invite Walker and Woodbury to present an account of their progress to the public. They in turn invited six fellow artists, two dancers, and a musician, along with a diverse collection of activists, all of whom came together on the second Thursday of the new year to resolve to continue the fight to preserve Great Salt Lake as a living organism.

As he always does, Christensen organized the gallery into appropriate spaces for the seven visual artists, in this case allowing each artist to be seen both as an individual and as one of an interconnected group. Among them, Woodbury’s poetry was appropriately placed like what modern poems often are: visual works as much as expressions in sound and meaning. She could be said to pursue her experience of the Lake’s soul through the forms of her art: the aubade, haiku, and so on.

The audience is encouraged to view 39 photographs by Linda Dalton Walker, selected from thousands, by walking among them as they would read a book. While many of the works throughout the exhibition endorse the popular view of the Lake as a majestic body of placid water, ringed by mountains that on its borders become islands—or did until recently—Walker presents views few will have seen: intimate portraits of the odd-looking but edible pickleweed plant, the paw print of a coyote, ice crystals, birds’ nests hidden in impenetrable brush or floating on water. Larger views include a flock of waterfowl fleeing a hawk, crowds of sandpipers and ibis, sometimes hosting a few phalaropes who have lost their own community. Many people look at animals and see things: Walker captures the inalienable connections between a pair of pelicans or a family of grebes. Anyone who has puzzled over the mud nests on road bridges will likely marvel at the beauty of their makers, the cliff swallows, seen here collecting material from the lakeshore. One stunning image captures a snowy egret, backlit by the sun so the shadows of the arm-like bones in its wings can be seen. Another miraculous panorama captures hundreds of ibis flying in a single formation that stretches seemingly from horizon to horizon, so that just when a viewer might conclude that’s all of them, other bands become visible behind them, going back to where the desert rain starts to fall, but evaporates before reaching the thirsty land below.

A serene image called "Brine Fly Dance," featuring a solitary bird with black and white plumage standing in shallow, reflective water. The soft, muted tones create a tranquil and minimalist composition.

Mary Perry, “Brine Fly Dance”

 

A photograph of cliff swallows gathering mud for their nests. One swallow is mid-air with wings spread wide, while others are perched on the muddy shore near a body of water.

Linda Dalton Walker, “Cliff Swallows”

There are three other artists who primarily contribute photographs. Ash Gerlach often treats water as secondary to its surroundings, all of which of course it influences, even creates, like the wave patterns it leaves in sand. Mary Perry lives in Park City, on East Canyon Creek, which has given her an appreciation for changes in the waterway over the years. Printing her photos on the same canvas she paints on contributes to them those same contrasting feelings of existing both eternally and yet in human time as well. And Doug Tolman’s panoramic views are characterized by large bands of subtle colors and texture in place of detail, like abstract paintings but with a strong vertical element like an island or a jetty centered in each. He also brought the sole sculpture within the show—“Last Gesture,” a twisting, tree-like form that rises from the floor and proffers a quantity of raw salt in the bowl at its top.

Bill Petersen has spent his life on the Lake and its tributaries, providing him with a ready reference to the peaceful locales he paints in all seasons. Title cards on his works tell how the Bear River interacts with the land it does more than flow through: at 350 miles, it’s the longest river in the US that doesn’t end in an ocean, while it gathers water from 7,500 square miles and irrigates 150,000 acres of farmland as it crosses five state boundaries on its way to the Lake. Jeanne Hansen’s oils capture subtle qualities in riverine surfaces across times and places; in contrast, her watercolors show, in birds-eye views, how water transforms the land into stunning geometric designs. Every bit as striking as Hansen’s abstract patterns, Brekke Sjobolm’s use of ink drawing on watercolor washes reveals the infinite interplay of nature’s structural intentions with colorfully modulated results.

The opening ceremonies ended with dancers Rae Luebbert and Milo Projansky Ono, accompanied by cellist Matthew Heckmann, in a modern pas de deux that alternated between mirroring each other’s movements and independently responding to them. At times their hypnotic gestures expressed the rhythms of sharing life in a finite space, represented by fabric boundaries they interacted with. At others they invoked the mating dances of cranes: birds also seen in Dana Kuglin’s traveling installation,  sculpted from reclaimed bronze plumbing and seen here outside the center’s front doors. Two celebrated expressions eventually came to mind. One is from John Lennon, who said that “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” relevant here where what began as a “Water Pilgrimage” to “where the rivers end” gave rise to so much more. And the other, as the Friends of Great Salt Lake, Grow the Flow, Stewardship Utah, Making Waves, and the Youth Coalition for Great Salt Lake stood together outside the gallery in support of its eight artists, was a saying the source of which is lost in antiquity: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

A photograph of framed artworks on a gallery wall, including Jeanne Hansen's watercolors and paintings of landscapes, featuring earthy tones and blue highlights.

Works by Jeanne Hansen

Water Pilgrimage: Where the Rivers End, Utah Cultural Celebration Center, West Valley City, through Feb. 25.

All images courtesy of the author.

16 replies »

  1. Absolutely incredible work! I have been following Linda’s instagram account for well over a year. To me, she is the leading bird photographer and look forward to all her posts and newsletters.

    To me, Linda, steps beyond the traditional role of a bird photographer, by taking the viewer on an adventure to areas most could only dream about visiting and this exhibition is exactly that. Bravo, Linda.

    Loved reading your review, Geoff. Thank you for highlighting incredible artists. It is a breath of fresh air.

  2. The exhibit was absolutely fascinating ! Very informative. The photographs were amazing as well as the program. Loved the information on Great Salt Lake.

  3. Geoff,

    Again, a heartfelt thank you for such a beautiful and touching review. Your words were thoughtful and provoking with an ending that nails just how we wanted to pull this exhibit together. …”that if you want to go far, go together.” Thank you again.

  4. Brilliant exhibit, mission and presentation. Poetry and dance performance were inspiring. Kudos to Linda and Sarah for all their work to help save our wonderful Great Lake.

  5. This is a well versed in depth article @15bytes by Geoff Wichert an advocate of the artists, their artwork and beautifully staged Pilar Pobil gallery by (Michael Christensen) at an outstanding venue the Utah Cultural Celebration Center.

    Thank you Geoff for the wonderful write up about Linda Dalton Walker photographer, Sarah Ann Woodbury poet, the individual artists and organizations associated with our tributaries of the GSL. For spending time learning about Linda and Sarah’s river journeys. For attending the well received exhibition and rivers end reception. For gaining perspectives on what influences us the artists and our experiences with the Great Salt Lake and its only tributaries, the Bear, the Weber and the Jordan, the rivers that slightly end somewhat into our Great Salt Lake inland sea.

  6. Geoff Wichert gave an insightful view of our Great Salt Lake exhibit, capturing important details and nuances in the art,
    photography and poetry. It has been an honor to included with my oils and watercolors. Linda Dalton Walker’s photographic vision with Sarah Ann Woodbury’s poetic words have made people think and look at our beautiful lake anew.

  7. Linda Dalton Walker’s photographic collection with Sarah Ann Woodbury’s interpretation of our Great Salt Lake along with additional talented artworks. A treat for the soul.

    If you have ever wondered what it is like to see the remote areas of the GSL, then this exhibit will give you what you desire. The flora and fauna that lives and affects the wetlands and rivers that merge into the now largest body of water west of the Mississippi are described and pictured. Reading the stories and poetic interpretation will transport you to another world.
    What a fantastic exhibit, my senses overwhelmed. Kudos ladies

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