Skies Above Walmart is a photographic essay consisting of 35 Polaroid photographs depicting the sky and weather conditions above 35 Walmart locations across the United States. Each is labeled with the time of each snapshot and the location of its associated Walmart, from Pennsylvania to California.

Years ago, Enterline was visiting her dear friend, Valerie, in the Mojave Desert. One evening, when it was her turn to cook dinner, she asked the group where she should go to grab the necessary groceries. Kevin loudly blurted out, “Whatever you do, don’t go to Walmart, the damn place is pushing all the mom-and-pop businesses out of town!” She promptly sped off to Walmart and bought the polaroid camera used for the series before respecting Kevin’s wishes and buying the dinner ingredients at the local grocery store.

The utter absurdity of defining the majesty of the stratosphere by its relation to the nearest Walmart location lends itself to a poetic, tongue-in-cheek critique of unfettered American Capitalism. The skies are, of course, entirely untethered to the ground over which they flow and all of its associated notions of jurisdiction, statehood, ownership, or profit. The clouds do not know or care which Walmart Inc. Supercenter location they shade.

“They paved paradise and put in a parking lot.” -Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi.

MATERIALS: Polaroid photographs, steel frame