©Jade Doskow, The New Wilderness, Freshkills, 2019/2021

Tucked within the halls of the Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina is Jade Doskows’ exhibition, Freshkills. This collection of images shows the land of the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, New York. The landfill has long since been occupied since its closing in 2001, and with it came two decades’ worth of decay and geological changes. Fresh Kills Landfill sent one final barge on March 22, 2001, except for providing a place for debris following the events of September 11, 2001. This caused a portion of the landfill to be historically important for the future. Since then the name Fresh Kills Landfill has been changed to Freshkills, and remains “The largest landfill-to-park transformation on the planet”

The first thing that came to my mind while viewing Jade Doskows’ exhibition Fresh Kill was geometry, equality, and a battle between sterile and septic.

There is a great deal of vibrancy and muted colors among this collection of images, both open and feral; and domesticated and closed. Each image holds its own story, they run deep with the people and places that are connected to the land, creating a time capsule for the viewer.

©Jade Doskow, North Mound, Winter, 2019/2021

Looking at Doskows’ work, my eyes kept going back to the image. The New Wilderness. I found fear taking hold of my heart as I gazed upon it, taking in the years of rust and grime left behind from neglect. What caught my attention the most was the reflection of the surrounding woods, how vibrant it shined through the leaf-filled sludge. There’s beauty even in the darkest of places, this image brings that thought to life.

Moving through the exhibition, I found that I enjoyed how simple the images were in terms of structure, how everything came together to form a simple yet complex visual on the space around them, whether that be a lab, snow-dusted field, or a smoke-filled sky.

Despite the landfill that had previously held claim to this land, Doskows manages to find the beauty within all of it, showing the world that there is something wonderful to be beheld even within places that are long since occupied.