Leisure Time

During the California wildfires of 2008 and 2009, Youngsuk Suh grabbed his camera and captured picturesque landscape shots of smoke toying brilliantly with the atmosphere, with tiny people — he often shoots overhead at a great distance — waterskiing? Also bathing, rafting, and camping under hazy (sometimes alarmingly so) skies, evidence of great upheaval happening somewhere off-frame. Mundane, perhaps, but that's Suh's point: Our experience of disasters is mediated by the "sophisticated social engineering" of disaster management, in which "one's own sense of threat is replaced by the color-coded ratings determined by the authority," he writes in the statement for his solo exhibit, "Wildfires." Hence, a day on the river while a fire rages a few mountaintops over, or a lone firefighter calmly considering the fire on the tip of his cigarette, and not the one behind him. Even a chipmunk — the sole, alert occupant of a deserted View Area — seems to be waiting for his usual handout.

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• Youngsuk Suh
• Wildfires
• Natural Disasters

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A reception for "Wildfires" starts at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 5.
July 15-Aug. 20, 2010