This Was the Landscape of Our Innocence presents photo-based conceptual work by Lane Barden, featuring two narrative symmetrical nine-panel grid installations. Our Yosemite pairs the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation with the ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and the removal of the Paiute from Yosemite with the invasion of Iraq. My Blue Ridge confesses that the Blue Ridge home of Barden’s youth provided a sense of American innocence that was soon proven to be false. The exhibition explores the resonance between America's mythic democratic landscape and its history of colonial aggression and endless war.
