SLCC Presents Roland Miller's Abandoned in Place: Preserving America's Space History

The elation of space exploration, the gravity of Cold War geopolitics, the foundational impact of mid-century design — Roland Miller's photographs in Abandoned in Place capture the launch and research facilities of the inchoate US space program in their 21^st century decrepitude, describing the ghost of an era that felt both technologically unbound and apocalyptically precarious.

According to James Walton, who manages SLCC's galleries and art collection, Miller's work plays with space and content to highlight that contradiction. "His eye for composition is superb," Walton explains. "He turns decaying buildings into iconic imagery that tells a complex story about our nation's history. It's melancholy for what was abandoned, hopeful for what we are capable of (When the motivation is there!), and simply a joy to look at."

The show pulls together a unique combination of documentary, abstract, and hybrid images, insisting on a multivalent perspective that's equal parts aspirational hope and existential dread. The effect, says Walton, is "to preserve and portray these historic sites and vehicles through photography that surpasses the official government approach to documentation to lend social, historic, and artistic insight to the subject."

Historical weight aside, the exhibit is also indulgently retro.

"As a time capsule, Abandoned in Place celebrates the wonderfully nostalgic mid-century colors and design elements of US industrial technology and architecture from the 1950s and '60s," Walton says while noting that the mix of subject matter and composition make the entire exhibit difficult to describe in one word. But if he had to?

"It's pure art."

Event Details:

Roland Miller | Abandoned in Place: Preserving America's Space History

When

Jan 15 - Feb 13

Where

The George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Gallery
Center for Arts & Media, SLCC South City Campus 
1575 S State St., Salt Lake City, UT 84115

Parking
Enter the code GALLERY at the yellow kiosk for free parking in the stalls marked with yellow lines.