DESCENT ≈ An Atlas of Relation

“Connecting the unimaginable span of deep time embedded within the lives of fish and their watery homes to varied understandings of descent—as passage, downward movement, decline, sinking, legacy, lineage, origination—I visualize our human-made worlds as a continuum, suggesting both the promise and peril of ecological longevity.”

– Dawn Roe

Dawn Roe uses photographic methods as observational tools, responding to sites and situations where human and more-than-human lives entangle, often drawing on grief and despair as generative modes of being. Combining a documentary approach with direct intervention, Roe’s process incorporates multiple reproductive methods including analog and digital imaging, film, and video.

Her most recent project, the indefinitely ongoing series, DESCENT ≈ An Atlas of Relation, looks to the fish – who have occupied our planet for millions of years in a constant struggle for survival – as a means of thinking through how human and more-than-human beings find ways to live alongside one another within the midst of a globally shifting climate.

About the Artist
Dawn Roe (b. 1971, Sault Ste. Marie, MI) lives between Asheville, NC and Winter Park, FL where she is Professor of Studio Art at Rollins College. Her projects examine the role of photographic practice in shaping personal and social understandings of our environment through site-responsive engagement.

Roe’s photographs and videos are exhibited and screened regularly throughout the U.S. and internationally at venues including The Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL; ISU University Galleries, Normal, IL; The Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR; Chiang Mai Photo Festival, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Screen Space Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; The Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, WA, Australia; and the Athens International Film Festival, Athens, OH; among others. A two-year public art commission from the Broward County Division of Cultural Affairs resulted in the production of a suite of artworks for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida in 2015.

About Lightner Local
Created to showcase the extraordinary talents of artists who live in the Northeast and Central Florida regions, Lightner Local is supported by the Benjamin and Jean Troemel Arts Foundation.