Torn Treatise Landscapes


Whether as legal agreements or the visual voice of dissent, prints have documented the violent histories of occupation which have silently marked our localities. And they can point to the possibility of reclaiming these spaces. 

Torn Treaties Landscapes began in Powhatan (Richmond, VA) and I continued this project in every location I’ve lived thereafter: Arapaho (Denver, CO), Tongva (Los Angeles, CA), Haudenosaunee (Rochester, NY), Cayuga (Ithaca, NY), and Comanche (Austin, TX). These prints reflect the specific histories of indigenous land stewardship and colonial occupation in each region. This series is composed of layered monoprints which bridge landscape and abstraction. I shape a resist by tearing paper to mimic the contours of the local landscape, then roll out ink in subtly shifting hues. In the days that pass as layers dry, I ground my practice by learning to navigate a new print shop and acknowledge the history of a place, whether visible or long-buried.

Above: Torn Treatise Landscapes Comanche, Lipan Apache, Coahuiltecan, Tonkawa, Jumanos
30 x 11
Monoprints

Above: Torn Treatise Landscapes Tongva, Chumash

Above: Torn Treatise Landscapes Haudenosaunee, Seneca
Above: Torn Treatise Landscapes Powhatan
(lithographs, intaglios, silkscreens, monoprints)

Above: Torn Treatise Landscapes Haudenosaunee, Seneca
Copyright Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas 2024