Salt Lake City
June 26, 2026 – January 2, 2027
Dirt Nap is a video installation consisting of 46 one-minute excerpts showing artist Rick Silva napping in landscapes across the Western United States. Recorded between September 2024 and January 2026, the work presents a simple premise—a body at rest in nature—while exploring themes of healing, attention, vulnerability, and loss.
Created in response to circumstances in the artist’s own life, the project examines intentional rest as a practice rather than an escape. Silva’s motionless presence encourages viewers to slow down and engage with the surrounding landscape. As attention shifts between the sleeping figure, the environment, and the relationship between the two, the body can seem to disappear altogether, allowing the landscape itself to emerge as the primary subject.
The exhibition’s title invokes both the colloquial phrase for death and the literal image of a living body returning, temporarily, to the earth. Through this dual meaning, Silva reflects on personal experiences while also raising broader questions about environmental change and the disappearance of places that provide solace and connection.
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
20 S. West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
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Categories: Exhibitions | Salt Lake Area Exhibitions
