Tesserae of Venus imagines a strange future through experimental film, photomontage and related drawings. Through them we gaze upon energy-producing landscapes, as if they were saturated by a carbon atmosphere like the one on planet Venus.
McPhee borrows the tectonics of Venus-tesserae, or ‘complex ridged folds’ in order to envision a future landscape at risk of growing carbon saturation and to present a spatial and political critique of a toxic environment. The photomontages take place in locations where biological systems clash with technological landscapes in remote parts of California. Mcphee shoots still photography and video at natural gas installations in the Sacramento River Delta, geothermal plants in the Salton,Sea and the San Ardo oil fields in the Salinas River Valley.
As science fiction and fantasy, Tesserae of Venus proposes a disturbing and radical observation of contemporary and future landscapes in the transition from petroleum to alternative energy production.
