Madre de Dios — Eirik Johnson Studio Website

Madre de Dios

The photo and sound-based project titled Madre de Dios transports visitors on a sensory journey deep into the Peruvian Amazon. Each work features a highly detailed photographic exposure of four to ten minutes in length, paired with a stereo audio recording made at the same location and duration as the exposure. The resulting works, large-scale photographic light boxes, illuminate and dim in sync with the environmental sounds recorded during that specific exposure. As each image begins to illuminate, one hears the sound of scarlet macaws landing on branches high above, the nocturnal mating calls of toads along an oxbow lake as a thunderstorm approaches, or the revving hum of a chainsaw at an illegal gold mining camp.

This is a sound-based work. Be sure to turn your volume up.

Ficus Tree Grove, 4.02 minutes exposure - backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording — Ficus Tree Grove, 4.02 minutes exposure - *backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording*

Thunderstorm approaching Lake Soledad at Night, 7.05 minutes exposure - backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording — Thunderstorm approaching Lake Soledad at Night, 7.05 minutes exposure - *backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording*

Capoc Tree Trunk, 4.30 minutes exposure - backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording — Capoc Tree Trunk, 4.30 minutes exposure - *backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording*

On the Banks of the Piedras River, 8.17 minutes exposure - backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording — On the Banks of the Piedras River, 8.17 minutes exposure - *backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording*

Illegal gold mining operation along Kilometer 104, 4.19 minute exposure - backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording — Illegal gold mining operation along Kilometer 104, 4.19 minute exposure - *backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording*

Transoceanic Highway Bridge Column across the Madre de Dios River, 8.07 minute exposure - backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording — Transoceanic Highway Bridge Column across the Madre de Dios River, 8.07 minute exposure - *backlit photograph with synchronized stereo audio recording*

Madre de Dios installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2010 — *Madre de Dios* installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2010