North Gate: Colonial Conservation of the Western Frontier

McCormick, Sarah

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

North Gate: Colonial Conservation of the Western Frontier Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/hq37vp57t

Abstract

My research focuses primarily on an almost 200-year-old land dispute in Southern Colorado, concerning La Sierra in the Sangre de Cristo Range. In my work, I have displaced several rocks from La Sierra and abutting properties, transporting them from their original context to my home in Boulder, Colorado. I have inserted the rocks into an electronically simulated environment, mirroring their original points of extraction. Surround audio collected at the north gate of La Sierra, as well as wind data transmitted in real-time from the original site of the rocks, are executed in a room in my house through WiFi transmission and electronic mechanisms. During the exhibition, the general public is allowed live-stream viewing access to the installation via webcam. With these movements, I explore the complexities of a paternalistic and objectified perspective on land ownership as well as possible solutions offered by contemporary philosophical and sociopolitical critiques. More specifically, my research considers the use of conservation rhetoric as a veil for colonial agendas. The goal of this writing is to deconstruct classist and commercialistic binaries and instead to help foster perspectives on healthy relationships with land. This essay grapples with the language, agenda, and social mindset of conservation, especially with regard to the Americas. I look to thinkers like Timothy Morton and Macarena Gómez-Barris whose research employs feminist and decolonial frameworks to critique colonial gestures. Ultimately, conservation rhetoric capitalizes on the uncertainty of our global state and fate of future generations. It is imperative that settlers look critically at our intentions to domesticate land and at the historical marginalization and displacement of the indigenous communities who know it best and persevere as sovereign heirs.

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