M. Alexis Pike

Claimed: Landscape

April 2, 2009 - May 3, 2009

As a sixth generation Idahoan, the landscape of the West influences Alexis Pike’s work. In Claimed: Landscape, Pike explores the way communities and individuals stake claims on the picturesque landscape and place it within the conventional structures of the community. Pike says, “by making a photograph of these claimed territories, I am staking my own claim to my heritage, the landscape.  The manner in which we depict this scenery has become the identity and perception of the American West, symbolized by wilderness, mountain peaks, crystal clear rivers, and big game animals. This is the mythology of the West.”