Kari Varner: Monett & Sedalia

Kari Varner: Monett & Sedalia by Galina KurlatMay 1, 2025

©Kari Varner Monett & Sedalia. Archival pigment print of image grown in the microalgae chlorella vulgaris

In her series Monett & Sedalia, Kari Varner investigates the impact of agriculture and food production on the land. After photographing the Tyson plant in the towns of Monett & Sedalia, she searched for a way to incorporate the landscape into the images. Using living microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris, she grows petri dishes of her Tyson plant photographs; the resulting images are ephemeral and specific to the land. They can take as long as a week to “develop” and require a level of attention reserved for the laboratory, not the darkroom. But by incorporating the process so deeply in the making of these works, Varner transforms the process into the subject matter.

Varner is connected to the effects on the altered landscape; she chooses to make these images specific to the nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich waterways, implicating herself with the ecology of the land. Varner’s deep understanding of the effects of industrial farming not only speaks to these two towns in southern Missouri but to other places forever altered by industrial and homogenous farming.

You can follow Kari on Instagram at: @karivarner

©Kari Varner Monett & Sedalia. Archival pigment print of image grown in the microalgae chlorella vulgaris

Kari Varner is a visual artist working in Binghamton, New York. Her explorations of the landscape often take the form of photographs, installations and ephemeral works. She received a BFA in Electronic Media Arts Design from the University of Denver and an MFA in Visual Art from Washington University in St. Louis. She currently holds the position of lecturer in photography at Binghamton University and has previously taught at the University of Denver in Colorado, Santa Reparata International School of Art and Florence Institute of Design International, affiliated with the University of Chester, in Florence, Italy.

Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions abroad, including Gallery Ondo, South Korea; Palace and Museum Bourbon del Monte in Monte Santa Maria Tiberina, Italy; San Marco Basilica in Florence, Italy; and Kunst(zeug)haus Rapperswil-Jona Museum and Kammgarn West Schaffhausen in Switzerland. Previous exhibitions in the United States include the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, Light Work, the Candela Gallery, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the Davis Gallery at the University of Denver. She has been awarded residencies at Millay Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson, Wofford College and Alfred University. She has received grants from Light Work and the Puffin Foundation. She is currently an artist-in-residence for the Erie Canal.

©Kari Varner Monett & Sedalia. Archival pigment print of image grown in the microalgae chlorella vulgaris

My practice is grounded in engagements with place. Using a range of experimental and historical process, I explore ecologies altered by agriculture and industry. The photographs in the series Monett & Sedalia emerged not from silver gelatin or pixels but a living substance. After photographing Tyson chicken plants in the southern Missouri towns of Monett and Sedalia, I struggled to find a way to connect the individual images to the cumulative environmental impact of nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich effluent in our waterways. Growing images in the microalgae chlorella vulgaris allowed me to incorporate both the materiality and the process of making into the subject matter itself.

The photographs require a week of continuous exposure to emerge and the resulting images are photographed and scanned. By using these materials, I become implicated in these processes of environmental alteration. Often the material experiments I undertake seem a reflection of our experiments on the environment itself. Ultimately, my work becomes an invitation to learn more and think more deeply about place while considering the intentional and inadvertent ways that we have left our traces on the land.