Oscar Palacio Fence, Gettysburg National Military Park, PA, 2008

With more than 130 works across 7 thematic groupings, the exhibition illustrates the national footprint of the military on the environment, the wide range of industries directly related to these activities, and the human impact of and responses to this activity. The exhibition finds its historic roots in the Civil War era, with images that show the devastation left by troops who were instructed by General William Tecumseh Sherman to ransack farms and indiscriminately set fires to eliminate the transportation and industrial infrastructure that sustained the Confederate Army. “We have devoured the land,” he declared. While recognizing its links to a trajectory that originated in the 19th century, Devour the Land begins with the 1970s, a dynamic period for environmental activism and photography, and includes a concentration of works from the 1980s onward by an international roster of 53 artists.

Devour the Land will be on display September 17, 2021 through January 16, 2022 in the Special Exhibitions Gallery at the Harvard Art Museums. The accompanying illustrated catalogue will present a range of voices at the intersection of art, environmentalism, militarism, photography, and politics, including an essay by Abrahm Lustgarten, senior environmental reporter for ProPublica. The publication is also enhanced by two poems by award-winning poet Ed Roberson and interviews with several of the foremost contemporary artists working in the landscape photography tradition: Sheila Pree Bright, Terry Evans, Ashley Gilbertson, David T. Hanson, Stacy Kranitz, Jin Lee, Richard Misrach, Barbara Norfleet, and Oscar Palacio.