2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageThe Land That Stains
Erosion, Adaptation, and Embodied Landscapes
Saturday, October 11 - 11:00AM to 11:45AM
IPE Building
The image, the earth, and the self all erode in parallel—changing across different timelines, yet bound by the same inevitability. In The Land That Stains, Jordan Funk uses Polaroids, ochres, and raw earth materials to explore erosion as both process and metaphor. By embedding natural pigments into the photographic surface, Funk creates images that shift, decay, and transform over time, echoing the cycles of the land and the human body.
This practice embraces the uncontrollable. As the Polaroids deteriorate, unpredictable variations of color and texture emerge, collapsing the boundaries between representation and reality. The landscape and the land itself blur, reminding us that neither exists apart from the other.
Through this work, erosion becomes more than an invisible force—it becomes visible and visceral. The decay mirrors human change, compressing time so that transformation can be witnessed within a single image. What might otherwise feel abstract takes shape in altered surfaces, rising as something impossible to ignore.
Funk frames erosion as a path to deeper conversations about care, connection, and climate. This talk will share her process of embedding earth into Polaroids, embracing chance in artmaking, and approaching place as both subject and collaborator. Ultimately, The Land That Stains asks us to consider how time, nature, and human touch all leave their mark—on images, on landscapes, and on each other.
speaker
Jordan Funk
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