Dustin Rice, Moore County, TX | Morgan Page, Adobes, TX | Morgan Page, Shafter II, TX
Central Library | 1st Floor Gallery
Where once there were the sounds of children playing, now there are just the whispers of the wind. The only visitors now are the wind and rain, along with the sun and moon. The abandonment itself is the citizenry. Where once there was community, now there are the Bones of Texas.
Texas is ever evolving. The people of Texas came in waves that spread from the east and south. They then settled communities. A generation of settlers created towns based on the resources nearby: lumber, cattle, cotton. As the value of resources changed, those towns changed with them. As other resources were discovered the ways of life for townspeople were changed. This went on in every region of Texas.
Texas has a long history that is diverse in both conflict and culture. Texas has seen Native Americans and frontiersmen, settlers and Texas Rangers. A great many set out to become farmers and the land dictated they become ranchers instead. Ranchers became oil men upon its discovery on their land. Railroads and the politics of where they went changed another generation. Rangers defended them as towns popped up seemingly from nothing to suit the needs of one group and lasted a generation, then just as quickly disappeared when the railroad, or eventually the highways, passed them by. As a consequence, towns that were once booming went by the wayside and others prospered in their place.
Such has been the case in modern day Texas as well. Small town Texas has been slowly dying for several generations. As our big cities get bigger, our small towns get left behind. A population rapidly concentrating in the city has left many small towns to slowly decay on their own. In this decay there is great beauty. In this abandonment, this waste, there is a sense of the past, a shadow of those who came before us.
In this exhibit, photographers Morgan Page and Dustin Rice seek to capture the natural textures and patterns in Texas’ landscape, as well as the stark contrast in the dilapidation that these things left behind give to it. In the thousands of miles they have traveled documenting these locations, they have strived to tell independent stories from the same places. One artist attempting to show the vastness of Texas, the scale that one place may convey against its own landscape; the other artist weaving stories of personal emotion and forgotten presence and absence in and around the architecture remaining.
About the Artists
Morgan Page received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Digital Media from the University of Houston in Houston, TX. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Dustin Rice received his Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Mass Communications from Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. Both Page and Rice share a keen interest in Texas history and an adventurous spirit in exploring Texas landscapes.
If you have any questions about this project, please visit https://www.bonesoftexas.com.