Local Language is pleased to present Silver Peak, a new exhibition by Artist in Residence Rachelle Reichert.
Over the course of her residency at Local Language, Rachelle Reichert created artworks using satellite images of the Clayton Valley, Nevada, the site of the only active lithium salt ponds in the United States.
Over 150 years ago, the Clayton Valley, sacred to the Shoshone tribe, was colonized by white settlers seeking silver, salt, and gold. When lithium was found near the town of Silver Peak, private companies began extracting the element. Lithium is used to treat mental illness by calming the brain. It is also used in batteries for smart technologies such as smartphones, electric cars, and computers. A renewed rush for resources has begun.
In Silver Peak, Reichert challenges the notion of objectivity that is assumed when an algorithmic data visualizer composites satellite imagery into a visual description of a place. She manipulates the images of the lithium ponds and surrounding environment, then prints the images onto shaped aluminum panels. Her arrangements play with form and color, highlighting her subjective understanding of the land.
Rachelle Reichert is a visual artist and art educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California (Chochenyo Ohlone territory). She creates drawings and sculptures to explore ecological concerns caused by technology. Artwork is included in many public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Archive, The Center for Art and Environment Archives at the Nevada Museum of Art, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Library, Facebook, and Adobe, Inc. Her work has been reviewed and published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Make: Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and New American Paintings and she has completed permanent commissions at the Ritz Mandarin Oriental in Madrid, Spain and Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. Rachelle has presented her artwork at the California Climate Change Symposium, the San Francisco State of the Estuary Conference, the American Geophysical Union Meeting and has been granted a Research Ambassadorship from Planet Labs to create anthropocentric climate-related artwork. Reichert’s research for Silver Peak was recently acquired by the Nevada Museum of Art Center for Art+Environment Archives.
The exhibition will be on view starting on First Friday, November 5, and Saturdays between 1-5pm. Join us for the opening and artist talk at 5pm on Friday, November 5!