We all learn about the laws of nature, such as Newton’s law of gravity or the laws of motion, understanding that the world only works on these guidelines and that most of the time, you don’t see it. Unlike gravity, in Tanya Marcuse’s display, you can see the process of decay, layer upon layer, acting on the laws of nature.
As a college student, Tanya Marcuse began her photography career, showcasing many of her photographs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Eastman Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Starting in 2015, Marcuse committed to a three-part, fourteen-year project titled Fruitless/Fallen/Woven, where she created a series of photographs based on the biblical story of the fall of Eden.
In her latest exhibition, Marcuse engaged in a months-long process of photographing the deterioration of the natural world. With flora, fauna, and animals as her medium, she photographed the differing stages of decay. In the size of a mural painting, viewers can move from one side to the other, noticing the intricacies of the ground, where much of plant and animal life either begins or ends.
The photograph gives the illusion of a 3D image depending on where one stands. There is also the sense of abstraction as you study it from afar. The photographs’ size is akin to the size of the world, vast and secretive to humans. Marcuse shows us how nature is continuously evolving, perpetually dying, and regenerating.
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