About the Exhibition:
Justyna Badach’s work is shaped by her experience as a refugee and person with stateless status. Land of Epic Battles focuses on the fleeting moments of landscape, architecture, and cultural heritage sites that appear in ISIS online recruitment videos. These culturally contested sites have been a subject for photographers since the mid-19th century but ISIS appropriates this stylized imagery for their own purposes. Badach re-appropriates this imagery, selecting a few seconds of footage to convert into large-scale negatives and contact print on watercolor paper using the casein process. To create the black pigmentation of the images, the casein emulsion is mixed with black powder, a gunpowder/explosive used to make bombs, the sale of which has been strictly regulated since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A Note from the Speer Gallery Director:
I encourage you to spend time with this visually arresting and conceptually complex artwork and to read the more comprehensive artist statement that is posted in the gallery. Badach has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad, and her work is held in many museum and private collections. She is currently the Head of Imaging at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Badach will join us on campus for an Upper School assembly on September 13th, and again for a closing Gallery reception on September 27th.

Artist Reception:
A closing reception will be held on September 27 from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. in the Speer Gallery