Will Wilson, Auto Immune Response, Mexican Hat Disposal Cell, Mexican Hat, Utah

Will Wilson
born 1969 San Francisco, California; lives Santa Fe, New Mexico
Auto Immune Response, Mexican Hat Disposal Cell, Mexican Hat, Utah
2019
archival pigment print from original tintypes
8 x 32 in.
lent by the artist, © 2020 Will Wilson

Will Wilson began creating his series: Auto Immune Response in 2005. Wilson states: “[the series] takes as its subject the quixotic relationship between a post-apocalyptic Diné man and the devastatingly beautiful, but toxic environment he inhabits. The series is an allegorical investigation of the extraordinarily rapid transformation of Indigenous lifeways, the disease it has caused, and strategies of response that enable cultural survival. The latest iteration of the Auto Immune Response series features an installation of a hogan greenhouse, entitled, Auto Immune Response Research Facility, in which Indigenous food plants are grown. This facility will be accompanied by a set of large-scale photographs illustrating the botany and cultivation of vital resources. My hope is that this project will serve as a pollinator, creating formats for exchange and production that question and challenge the social, cultural and environmental systems that surround us.”