BETH JOHNSTON | Indicator #1, 2023

“All of this is infected; we just don’t see it yet.” This is how a local forest service manager described the forest to me as we surveyed the horizon from Monarch Pass, CO. Just a few years later, 90% of these trees have died from a small, native insect named the Spruce Beetle. Beetle Kill: Symptom or Disease? is a public art project commissioned by CU Boulder’s CASE Fellowship that explores the cascading impacts and underlying conditions of beetle kill on Monarch Pass. Through collaboration with CU Boulder ecologists and local forest experts, the resulting artwork translates scientific research and interdisciplinary questions into visual form. While the project explores the impacts of a specific beetle in a specific location in a specific time, it is also an invitation to consider what lies beyond what we currently see. 

Additional Information: 

The pieces utilizes expired land polaroids, which, due to chemical instability, only develop images 10% of the time.  This mirrors the experience of being on Monarch Pass today, where only 10% of the spruce trees remain, creating a visual parallel to the landscape’s transformation. 

The frames incorporate wood from a variety of tree species—walnut, oak, and beetle-kill pine—to underscore that this story is not just about the spruce tree. Many of the same underlying conditions of climate change are threatening trees across the country in unique but interconnected ways.

BIO

Beth Johnston (she/hers) is a research-based artist working across photography, video, and installation to explore the intersection of ecology and cultural imaginaries. Beth received an MFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design in 2022 with a self-designed concentration in Nature-Culture Sustainability Studies. She is currently a Colorado Art Science Environment (CASE) Fellow with the University of Colorado-Boulder and the recipient of the 2023 Denis Roussel Fellowship with the Center for Fine Art Photography.