Eleanor Mahin Thorp: Snowtrickle, feldspar, dirt

This exhibition takes its title from Gary Snyder’s poem “For Nothing,” included in his Pulitzer Prize–winning collection Turtle Island. The book reimagines North America as a “living entity” that dissolves arbitrary political borders and draws from Native American mythologies to advocate for a deeper, cosmic-level relationship with the land.Similarly, Thorp’s paintings nod to the Earth’s own energy and rhythm. Using imagery that references the geothermal activity of the Yellowstone Basin- seismic patterns echoed in the tree lines, the breathing quality of geological formations, and the ability of precipitation to illuminate and transform the land- Thorp depicts a landscape with a complex elemental language. Painting becomes a means of listening to that language and recording how human activity is changing the conversation.These landscapes are understood as inherently political; the reopening of nearby mines, public land selloffs, and logging leases near Yellowstone’s borders provide an urgent backdrop to Thorp’s exploration of the geological archive. Thorp also traces the context of how place names—”Devils Tower”, “Hells Canyon”, “Spiteful”—can function as markers of othering, historically rendering land and indigenous inhabitants as malevolent. Drawing on the traditions of her Iranian heritage, Thorp maps the parallels between human intervention, mythologies, and geological authorship that offer a deeper understanding of our world.