KAROLINA KARLIC – RUBBERLANDS
2018-03-12Karolina Karlic’s Rubberlands is an ongoing photographic survey that maps the social and ecological impacts of rubber manufacturing. Following the trajectory of the artist’s earlier work exploring the automobile industry in Michigan, Rubberlands proceeds from Midwest cities like Detroit and Akron, Ohio—once auto capitals of the world and now entry points for commodities through globalized networks. Connecting the company archives of Henry Ford, Goodyear, Goodrich, General Tire, and Firestone, Karlic traces the evolution of an industry that relies heavily on outsourcing of the Hevea brasiliensis (Amazonian rubber tree). Her photographic fieldwork in Brazil has taken her to manufacturing plants in Salvador and Itaparica, Michelin rubber plantations in the Atlantic forest, a fisherman’s village on the coastal rivers of Itubera in Bahia, and the vestiges of Fordlândia, Henry Ford’s planned community in the Amazon.
Exhibition runs through to March 30th, 2018
Light Work Hallway Gallery
316 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse
13244 NY