©Morgan Barrie, Captivity I

As an art history nerd, Morgan Barrie’s Captivity images from Myth of the Flat World have been stuck in my mind since I saw them. This bright, contemporary reference to the Unicorn Tapestries creates a conversation about belonging. Do you get rid of the stunning wildflower that grows amongst your green grass every spring? It is natural, yet may not “belong” to this region, and yet it is thriving. Morgan creates these landscapes, overgrown with natural elements that are often seen as eyesores in suburban neighborhoods, each with its own purpose. Carefully photographed and layered, she creates new environments that speak to larger ideas of nature, human or animal, innate or learned. As you spend time with each of these photographic tapestries, you will learn a bit more about our natural world and the roles we help, and hurt, within it.

©Morgan Barrie, Captivity II

Morgan Barrie is an artist working with photography whose work imagines postnatural futures. If a process has been called “tedious” or “monastic,” she has probably tried it and loved it. She studied at Columbia College Chicago, where she received her BA, and Eastern Michigan University, where she received an MFA in Photography in April 2013. She currently works from a studio in Menomonie, Wisconsin and is an Assistant Professor in the School of Art & Design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Her work has been exhibited nationally & internationally.

Morgan is a member of the Eco.Echo Art Collective, a group of international artists deeply concerned with the well-being of our planet beyond human needs.

You can follow Morgan on Instagram at: @morganbarrie

©Morgan Barrie, Pest I

Myth of the Flat World

A landscape can be read like a text, each element revealing a piece of a narrative. Weeds can tell stories of traveling across continents and displacing other species to dominate their new terrains. Cultivated plants have survived and spread partially through their seduction of human beings, and some animal species are now believed to have partially domesticated themselves. Landscape is something constructed, piece by piece, by many different players.

This body of work explores this built aspect of the environment by following the same basic structure as millefleur tapestries. Each work is assembled flower by flower so that the final image contains dozens of individual photographs. Native species mix with non-native and even invasive plants, as do human and animal elements.

Work from this series is editioned in two sizes, 40” x 50” and 24” x 30” on archival inkjet paper.

©Morgan Barrie, Pest II

Epiphany Knedler: How did your project come about?

Morgan Barrie: Myth of the Flat World started in August of 2017. I had been working on another body of work all about plastics & their negative environmental impacts. I’d had a pet pass away and was burned out on making depressing work, so the first piece, Captivity I, was just intended as a one-off. I decided to remake The Unicorn in Captivity with my pit-mix dog at the center, surrounded by plants from my garden, weeds from the nearby park, and a tiny doll fence I’d found. The whole conceit was a little funny to me, but in practice it was also a meticulous and loving recreation of the Southeast Michigan landscape I then called home and a celebration of the animal companion that was a huge source of joy for me at that point (and still is).

I had a studio visit a few months later with a lot of the plastics work, but that initial Captivity I piece was in a corner as a little 8×10 print. It kind of took over the critique, which was a clue that the piece had some resonance beyond just the personal. And looking back, I made it to be printable at 40 x 50 at a time when that was a real stretch for my computer, camera, and budget, so maybe my commitment was deeper initially than I remember. Either way, it just kept going for about the next year and a half, which was the remainder of the time I lived in Michigan.

©Morgan Barrie, Ornament I

EK: Is there a specific image that is your favorite or particularly meaningful to this series?

MB: Ornament I, the one with the fox, is a piece I had hanging in my house for a long time. It didn’t make me frustrated to look at day-to-day; any artist knows that this is a huge self-compliment.

I think part of it was the magic of working with a fox I found at the Howell Nature Center who seemed to enjoy being photographed, but beyond that I think that’s the moment when I was able to adopt the tapestry language but make it a bit more my own. Each piece also focuses on a different period of growth; Ornament I shows plants from about late May to mid-June, which is also such an amazing point of the year. It’s a record of the garden I left behind as well.

©Morgan Barrie, Ornament II

EK: Can you tell us about your artistic practice?

MB: For this work, I brought plants into my home straight from the garden or from my daily walks, photographed them with natural light, and obsessively masked out the background before Photoshop made that as easy as it does now. I learned a lot about my environment from this project; weeds I’d seen and recognized my whole life were now dominating my computer screen so I finally learned their names. After the names, I learned about their histories, places of origin, and realized that the field near my apartment was this text of ecological history. I’m still fascinated by this way of taking in a landscape.

©Morgan Barrie, Beast Burden I

EK: What’s next for you?

MB: In the last year I’ve been working more photo-sculpturally but am still incorporating digital collage and following through on a lot of the ideas that began in Myth of the Flat World. I just went through my university’s tenure process and am so excited for a summer of studio and garden time. Those are the big things for now.

©Morgan Barrie, Beast Burden II

©Morgan Barrie, Pieces From An Island That Is Still Forming I

©Morgan Barrie, Pieces From An Island That Is Still Forming II

©Morgan Barrie, Omen I

©Morgan Barrie, Omen II

Epiphany Knedler is an interdisciplinary artist + educator exploring the ways we engage with history. She graduated from the University of South Dakota with a BFA in Studio Art and a BA in Political Science and completed her MFA in Studio Art at East Carolina University. She is based in Aberdeen, South Dakota, serving as an Assistant Professor of Art and Coordinator of the Art Department at Northern State University, a Content Editor with LENSCRATCH, and the co-founder and curator of the art collective Midwest Nice Art. Her work has been exhibited in the New York Times, Vermont Center for Photography, Lenscratch, Dek Unu Arts, and awarded through the Lucie Foundation, F-Stop Magazine, and Photolucida Critical Mass.