As our global population increases exponentially, the effects of our actions are changing the environment. With global warming and the melting polar icecaps contributing to rising ocean levels, we are literally and figuratively losing ground.

Losing Ground, an exhibition and an artist book, also called “Losing Ground”, were shown as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival 2009 at the South Shore Art Center and later travelled to Landing Gallery, Rockland, Maine.

The exhibition included both large-format pieces and artist books which combine traditional art materials and digital processes. The wall-hung pieces were printed primarily on uv cured flatbed printers on substrates such as aluminum and polycarbonate.

The books include covers pigment printed on copper and engraved with a laser into wood. A PDF file of the exhibition catalog with essays about the art can be opened in your browser or downloaded.

Reviewing the exhibition at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, MA, Sarah E. Fagan said:

The exhibition “Losing Ground,” contains a mix of big and small – but at first glance, one may wonder where the “cyber” comes into play in the soft earth-toned panels of painted and photographed landscapes. It turns out the technology is in the method: Krause isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, but also not afraid to use machinery to make a stronger impression.

Her large format works are made with laser printers, which help Krause print on materials like aluminum, an awkwardly elegant compliment to her natural scenes. Organic and mechanical combine fittingly in Krause’s bound pieces as well: lasers cut into wooden covers, copper plates are burnt and etched. The machine-made imprints offer an air of permanence; the words “LOSING GROUND” stamped in heavy-handed text across a glowing cover scene of the title book remind us of the irrevocable imprint humans make on the environment. This scene, like all of the chosen work, contains a metallic glow, both beautiful and apocalyptic. The show has been called a “plea” to make permanent the potentially ephemeral and ephemeral the potentially permanent, and the combined use of digital technologies and the handmade imparts a bewitching solemnity to the entreaty.

Sarah E. Fagan, artscope, May-June, 2009