Jonas N.T. Becker

Jonas N.T. Becker makes photographs, videos, sculptures, installations, and performances that explore how systems of power place value on the body and the resource-rich landscape. Becker, who divides time between their home state of West Virginia and Chicago, asks viewers to consider questions of environmental injustice and extractive economies, reflecting on both broader political dynamics and intimately personal impacts.
 
Becker’s two-year Wexner Center Artist Residency Award supported several works. These include a series of photographs entitled Better or Equal Use that use coal dust to depict redevelopment projects on former mining sites in Appalachia. The award also supported Class Struggle, a new film on the transmission of politics across generations and the sustained impact of inherited knowledge, developed with the Wexner Center Film/Video Studio. During the residency, Becker developed the floor work titled Betty’s Knob, which uses black tread tape to reproduce the original topography of the namesake summit in Kentucky—later destroyed by mountaintop removal mining. In addition, the residency supported the creation of two sculptures made from coal, titled 70 lbs and 69.2 lbs.
 
Photographs from the series, scenes from the film, the floor work, and the coal sculptures are all featured in Becker’s exhibition at the Wexner Center, A Hole is not a Void, curated by former Head of Exhibitions Kelly Kivland and former Curator Lucy I. Zimmerman, with support from Curatorial Assistant Jonathan Gonzalez and Curatorial Intern Madelyn Thompson. The exhibition is on view June 1 through August 21, 2024. During the exhibition’s run, Becker will also participate in a series of public programs related to the themes in their work.

Pictured above: Jonas N.T Becker
Photo by Marzena Abrahamik