Artist Statement 2001
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| Water Works Photography works on water, power and the land. |
By Adrianne Read
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I went into this very small gallery in Laguna Beach expecting to spend about 15
minutes and walked out 2 1/2 hours later with my head swimming full of questions
about our natural resources and just how much we take for granted what keeps us
alive. Water.
When I first glanced at the Arial photographs of bodies of water, that is what
they looked like. Like a documentary on finding out what life forms exist on other
planets. Then I looked closer and what I was seeing was run-off from chemical
dumping sights for hazardous waste. Sights that were magnified by huge, glossy,
color prints with a symposium on anthracite coal companies –closed mines- that
could not compete with other energy sources. They were dumping the waste in
these areas for years and we have done nothing to help nature in a healing process
or even recognize that recovery is important. The prints were large format,
magnifying every detail we do not look at normally, with great attention to deep
shades of red and hot colors that signify pain.
As I began to get absorbed, the curator, Mark Chamberlain began to explain how
the artists came together and his reasons for including each piece, but only to open
my mind to how important his cause was. He wants to educate the public on where
the world is going and how to maintain life form with our water. He is concerned
with how water is undervalued, misused, ignored, and just plain scarce in some
areas. His contention is that the next wars will be fought over water, not oil.
Next I looked at a set of prints by Douglas McColluh called chance encounters.
The artist made a grid of Los Angeles with an x and y axis that he could follow on a
daily basis. He closed his eyes and let his pen find where he was going to shoot for
that day. His prints were straight, high contrast, full frame black and white prints
with a commentary attached with what his thoughts were on the environment and
the feeling he got when he was shooting. Mark asked him to see what he had on
water out of the 5, 400 areas he covered to contribute to the impact. He shot the
Los Angeles riverbank and his work definitely conveys what he was feeling, by his
use of angles and directness he engages the viewer in. He impacts you on an area
we rarely venture to even guess what goes on at.
Then I listened, or should I say, I listened the entire time I was at to gallery to the
documentary by Claude S. Wiley called Romance of the hydrograph. He recorded
sounds of the San Diego Creek in Orange County. The sounds came from the
creek while going against the grid structure over three seasons. He investigates
a canalized waterway in an effort to better understand the realities of water
management while at the same time reconnecting himself with the physical
environment. It seems when an artist is trying to engage his audience, he must
first do so himself. It got to re-think the importance of an earth system. He visits
the politics of Water and gives us an insight a country like Israel who uses drip
irrigation, low-pressure spray irrigation and cloud seeding to maintain agricultural
practices; however, California, rich in agriculture takes water conservation for
granted. We are entering an age where imaginations can help us to increase ourlevels
of perception. Our technologies may become distracting to the support
system of our physical environment unless we come to terms with the plant-
animal-water-relationships keeping us alive. His book on the research he did
while he was recording the sounds is driven home by the intense emotions you
experience while absorbing what you are listening.
There is an installation of a bed of grass called lawns in the dessert by Kathryn
Miller and Michael Horner. And a book of digital prints with statements like 60%
of urban water is used to water lawns, and 220 gallons of water a year-
keep a 2ft x 5ft piece of grass alive (the installation). What makes this piece
easier tolook at and take in is in this book you will find solutions to a problem.
The rest of the exhibit is more of the same and what is offered with the intense
emotion I felt is an upside and the feeling that we can all do something. As I was
leaving Cancer Alley by Richard Misrach drove home the point that what we call
drinking water is what we are dieing over. His piece was a study of 75 toxins found
in the carcinogens in Louisiana Drinking Water. It is a 150-mile stretch between
Baton Rouge and New Orleans where oil refineries have dumped and now Louisiana
suffers the highest mortality rate from cancer. Two hazy, romantic images done
with large format 8 x 10 with Hughes of green that you wouldn’t think could exist
with the image before you.
In conclusion, I think art should convey not only a message and a problem, but
also hopefully a solution. I may not always agree, but I am thinking about how I am
affected and wanting to understand. |
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