Exhibit displays professor’s work
Craig Law, long-time USU photography professor, gave a lecture Sept. 2 in the Merrill-Cazier Library. His work is being featured in a Utah Arts Council traveling exhibit, “Ancient Painters on the Colorado Plateau.” The exhibit displays never-before-seen photos from Law’s work with a documentation and preservation project, the Barrier Canyon Style (BCS) Project.
Law opened his lecture by explaining one of his inspirations, G.E. Anderson. As a graduate student at USU, old negatives from Anderson’s work were found and displayed in Law’s hometown of Garland, Utah. These negatives, Law explained, lit a “photographic flame.”
Law began photographing what he described as everyday life in Garland, specifically the local church community.
To show examples of the approach he took to this first well-known project, Law displayed pictures he’d taken of a family picnic and young girls raking leaves. These early photos ended up in the Smithsonian Institute. Following this first project, Law began photographing Utah waterways. He said this was the project that transitioned into his work with the Barrier Canyon Style Project.
Law began documenting sites for the BCS Project in 1991. As of March, Law and his colleague David Sucec have photographed 352 rock-art sites in Utah. Rose Milovich, exhibit program director and part of the committee that chose to feature Law, said the project is about more than the visual elements of the rock art.
“Part of the project is to document many sites, to bring awareness to the art form and then preserve it,” she said.
Chris Terry, head of the art department, echoed Milovich, saying there is more to the work done in the BCS Project than what is seen.
“It’s not just an aesthetic experience but also a learning experience,” he said.
“They discover them and photograph them, but it doesn’t tell where they are. He’s trying to preserve and bring awareness to them.”
The rock art featured, referred to as Barrier Canyon Style, refers to the location where a large amount of rock art was found. Now known as the “great gallery,” this collection was found in what is now called Horseshoe Canyon and gave a way to describe many of the figures found in southern Utah. The figures, Law explained in his lecture, typically have similar characteristics: elongated bodies, figures leading animals and, occasionally, figures with “bulging” eyes.
Since many of the paintings are several thousand years old, some dating back between 4000 and 3000 BC, many of the paintings have faded or been damaged from natural weathering and environmental pollutants.
The BCS Project website states, “an individual can, in less that fifteen minutes, do more damage to a rock art panel than three or four thousand years of natural weathering.”
Law relayed stories of pictures that had been shot at by modern campers, saying it “breaks your heart to see that.”
Milovich said the exhibit also ties into Utah culture. She said part of the reason Law’s photos were chosen is the tie to the library’s collection of Utah and western region materials.
“This kind of imagery really resonates with people,” Milovich said. “It’s important to acknowledge these sites, their history and importance for our state.”
Holding both a B.A. and M.F.A. in photography from USU, Law has taught at his alma mater for over 30 years, longer than any current staff member in the art department, according to Terry. Terry said he has always admired Law’s work, even admitting to hanging some on his walls. Law has brought students into the field with him, Terry said, and has taken two groups of students to Scotland for a study-abroad experience.
Law’s work has been featured in 19 solo exhibits, aside from Ancient Painters on the Colorado Plateau, since the mid-1970s. Law was also given the Oliver Award in 2008 by the American Rock Art Research Association for his work with the BCS Project. Several permanent collections house Law’s photography, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the LDS Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City, UT, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at USU.
Most recently, Law’s work with the BCS was selected by the Utah Arts Council to be used as one of their traveling exhibits. The purpose of these traveling exhibits, according to artsandmuseums.utah.gov, is to “provide access to an array of visual arts, nurture the understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, promote creativity and encourage cultural activities in local communities.” Law expressed his belief that this exhibit, along with bringing awareness, has had a big influence on the preservation of Utah’s rock art.
“It’s been a lovely part of this project to be a stimulus for these restorations,” he said.
The BCS Project website states it’s goal to have the photographic work completed in 2014. After that, inventory and interpretation of the pictures will commence and is expected to be finished in 2016.
– k.vandyke@aggiemail.usu.edu