Rick Silva: Dirt Nap

Dirt Nap is a series of 46 one-minute excerpts of the artist napping in nature across the Western United States, recorded between September 2024 and January 2026. While the idea and its presentation are straightforward- a landscape and a body resting in it- there is something radical in intentional rest and the seeking of peaceful isolation. Responding to situations in his own life, Silva found himself drawn to the idea of deliberate rest- not as avoidance, but as practice in sustained attention and healing through physical connection to nature. While the artist’s body is a focal point in the video, the ambiguity of the figure allows it to become a surrogate for the viewer, prompting a meditative, secondary experience of the landscape. The viewer may focus first on the artist’s form, then the landscape, then the space where they meet. At times, the sleeping figure seems to disappear. Silva’s inactivity allows space for observation and reflection, prompting the viewer to remain patient, vulnerable, and quiet. Alongside Silva, we slow down and begin to experience the landscape as a physical presence that can both incite and invite healing. A colloquial euphemism for death, the exhibition’s title carries a dual weight; “dirt nap” also literalizes the imagery of a living body returned, temporarily, to the ground. Acknowledging the double meaning, Silva states, “The project has some heavier personal meanings for me, but I also think it touches on broader themes of loss related to landscape in the 21st century.” In this way, Silva is asking, “Where will we find healing if these places disappear?”