June 16 – September 18, 2022

Port Townsend-based artist Karen Lené Rudd examines the use of natural resources and the role of the worker in this ambitious installation. Objects of huge and miniature scale combine to offer a window into the beautiful and horrifying era of humans on our planet.

“Through three distinct bodies of work in this exhibition, Karen Lené Rudd (website) ties together her uncanny vision of the ruptures humans have made in the vast terrestrial span upon which we have only very recently appeared. Tree stumps, Industrial Age clothes, and miniature tableaus trace the existence of unpremeditated participants in what would become generations of land and resource exploitation. The elements of space, scale, and time infuse these works to an end that conveys a terrible beauty, a wry candor, a serious joke. Rudd surfaces deep time by bringing us back—through the materials she uses, the ways she activates these materials, and the perspective this combination offers us—to consider the impacts that humankind has had on the environment through this Anthropocene age, from loggers to factory workers to our current high-tech, consumer culture.”
– Kathleen Garrett

Garrett’s essay, alongside Rudd’s own statements about her work and her process are included in a full color catalogue accompanying the exhibition.

Visit Anthropocene Thursday through Sunday, 11:00AM to 4:00PM, at the Jefferson Museum of Art & History through September 18. karenrudd.com