Thomas Moran's The Passaic Meadows (in 20 days of Smog)

Abeles’s ongoing Smog series uses atmospheric pollution as a medium to recreate scenes of American art and life. After leaving carefully covered plexiglas plates on the roof of her Los Angeles studio for 20 days, Abeles peels back her stencil to reveal an image captured in the smog that accumulated on its surface.

Abeles’s recreation of The Passaic Meadows in smog speaks to the history of the New Jersey Meadowlands since Thomas Moran produced his sketch in the 1870s. Just across the river from New York City, the area is historically famous for ecological abuse: first as an unregulated dumping zone, then as a site for industrial runoff, before finally undergoing significant development. A reflection on these effects of industry on the landscape, Abeles’s smog painting reimagines Moran’s picturesque composition with pollution as the subject and medium of this self-reflexive work.