These works form part of an ongoing, site-responsive series considering the potential of place and topography as harboring evidence of wounds and repair. I seek exchanges in territories and locations imbued with a certain heaviness – as a palpable weight generated by past occurrence or poetic resemblance. The imagery resulting from material collected during these encounters places histories of pain endured by the land and individual bodies in relation through photo-based still and moving forms. Relentless and difficult to grasp, the slog of geologic time and personal grief correspond through the ephemerality of images and how they tenuously come to be. This phase of the project centers the Taxus brevifolia genus of yew tree and its location in the Pacific Northwest as its subject in relation to my own experience in the region during a tumultuous time when the pervasive sight of clear cut hillsides served as the visual backdrop to personal struggles with addiction, depression, and loss. These considerations led to an in-depth engagement with the cultural and ecological legacy of this species, generating a provocative framework for thinking through ongoing cycles of neglect. Though long revered by Indigenous cultures, the Pacific yew was primarily disregarded by foresters of the settler state as an insignificant understory component –- both economically and environmentally - until it was discovered to produce a plant alkaloid highly effective as a chemotherapy drug. Connecting the complex narratives and mythological associations of the yew tree – known as a symbol of death and regeneration – to my ongoing concerns with the limitations of photographic modes of re-presentation as reliable artifacts of the past, Wretched Yew is deliberately varied in both aesthetic and material. Working on location, direct print and film exposures of noted trees and their surround were produced over timed intervals using UV-sensitive processes, a selection of which were toned with a tannic acid solution produced from sustainably collected yew bark. Resulting prints and collected ephemera were digitized and incorporated into video segments revealing the process of production, juxtaposed with studio footage of an improvisational recording session. The dominant use of the straightforward, photogram process serves as a deliberate nod to the DIY ethos of punk culture, connecting with the use of music in the work and the musicians – personal friends and luminaries of the Portland underground arts and music communities – who collaborated on the soundtrack. Wretched Yew developed from a prolonged interest in philosophical and poetic modes of thought and structure, but was equally informed by a deep, personal engagement with the Pacific yew, its land, and history. The individual project components collectively function as acknowledgement of the unsettled sorrow permeating these mental and physical spaces, operating as a set of discrete elegies.