Comparing the Standard Environmental Colors palette developed by the US Bureau of Land Management against the colors found at a beach in Galveston, TX. Photo credit: Erik Schmahl


Installation at Plein Air, MOCA Tucson. Three-channel video includes: Sudan Brown. Redington Pass, Coronado National Forest, digital video, 28:00. Carlsbad Canyon, Unnamed Wash that Flows into the Santa Cruz River, Tucson, AZ 2021/2022, digital video, 17:00. Juniper Green, Bronx Wash, Tucson AZ, 2022, digital video, 17:00. Photo credit: Julius Schlosburg

Installation at Plein Air, MOCA Tucson. Three-channel digital video. On right: Standard Environmental Colors palettes, US BLM publication with acrylic paint. On left: Uniforms in Sudan Brown, Carlsbad Canyon, and Juniper Green, handsewn, dyed and vintage linen/cotton garments. Photo credit: Julius Schlosburg


Installation at Plein Air, MOCA Tucson. US Bureau of Land Management publications, acrylic paint. Photo credit: Julius Schlosburg


Installation at Plein Air, MOCA Tucson. Uniforms in Sudan Brown, Carlsbad Canyon, and Juniper Green, handsewn, dyed and vintage linen/cotton garments. Photo credit: Julius Schlosburg 

Plein Air, curated by Aurora Tang, was on view at MOCA Tucson from May 14, 2022 - March 12, 2023.

Review by Hyperallergic: ‘Plein Air Is a Sobering Reminder of Human Impact on the Environment’

Leave No Trace involves the artist’s ongoing research into the US Bureau of Land Management’s Standard Environmental Color chart, a palette of nine standardized paint colors approved for use on the federal agency’s facilities, along with their guidelines on selecting the appropriate color to paint a structure in order for it to best blend into various landscape settings. Centered around a series of new video works, Battin considers the ways in which paint can be used as a tool for concealing human impact on the physical land, while also posing questions around the effects of the artist’s own presence onsite.
—Aurora Tang

Plein Air is a group exhibition that explores shifting ideas of western landscape, painting, and fieldwork. Plein Air includes work by Susanna Battin, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, iris yirei hu, KB Jones, Hillary Mushkin (Incendiary Traces), Sterling Wells, and Paula Wilson.