Eden Turned on Its Side

Over the course of her career, internationally renowned artist and University of New Mexico alumna Meridel Rubenstein creates photographic artworks that engage the natural world and investigate humanity’s place within nature.Eden Turned on Its Side looks at ecological and human processes across time that either reinforce or destroy the notion of “Eden.” Focusing on poetic intersections of nature and culture in relation to ecological and social imbalance, the work consists of large-scale photographic images that tend toward immersive installation, as is characteristic of much of Rubenstein’s art. It comprises three parts—Photosynthesis, Volcano Cycle, and Eden in Iraq—which respectively explore ecologies on the scales of human time, geological time, and mythical time.Eden Turned on Its Side will accompany an exhibition of the same name, organized by the University of New Mexico Art Museum and opening in February 2018.