Still Water from Jan./Feb. 2010 Art Papers
Still Water features works by sixteen artists and focuses on that mundane liquid that makes life possible [Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College; October 8- November 22, 2009]. These works put forth the importance of water for our physical survival and spiritual wellbeing. They also remind us of a number of looming dangers: pollution of our water sources as well as the depletion of reservoirs, lakes, and rivers because of popu- lation growth and unrestrict- ed land development. The show spreads from inside the gallery to a number of outdoor sites around the Agnes Scott campus.
In Linda Armstrong’s Water- wars, 2009, hundreds of multi colored toy water pistols, mounted in regimented rows on a wall, are pointed at the viewer. It’s funny at first, but the experience turns omi- nous when water and fun give way to water and death.
Aviva Rahmani’s wonderfully inventive eco-cyber Gulf to Gulf, 2009, uses the web to produce and reproduce real-time teleconfer- ences seeking to solve environmental problems. The conferences include scientists, environmental experts, and artists, with Rahmani responding to the ideas and strategies expressed by the participants with “performative paintings” made possible by a web tool called WebEx. Ideas and applications brilliantly emerge throughout the teleconferences, and Rahmani’s variously subtle cyber-images are more of a subjective accompaniment than a specific commentary.
Katherine Taylor’s large oil painting Marine, 2009, reveals another dimension of the theme. The work portrays a group of aircraft-car- rier warships at sea painted in a manner that evokes the romantic seascapes of J.M.W. Turner and the soft focus of Impressionism. The tension between subject and style generates a grim awareness of state-sponsored instruments of violence and their continuing use.
Refined?, 2009, Treatment?, 2009, and Sanitary?, 2009, Linda Gass’ stitched paintings on quilted silk, respectively feature aerial views of an oil refinery, a sewage treatment plant, and a sanitary landfill. Located on the shore of San Francisco Bay, these sites constitute a threat to the local ecosystem. Gass uses greens, blues, and earth tones, along with the quilted silk’s three-dimensional quality, to suggest topographical maps. Here, the cool color harmonies and the silk’s rich sensuality make these works quite beautiful. Some viewers have, in fact, criti- cized them as too pretty for their subject matter. More importantly, they require us to reconsider, and ultimately revise, the conventional use of ugliness to depict indus- trial waste, sewage, and gar- bage. Might not this strategy paradoxically produce an even greater awareness of their danger?
Outside, Patricia Tinajero presents Sprouting Water, 2009, a site-specific alternative water filtration system made of organic and recycled materials. Installed in the gallery’s courtyard, this labyrinth of containers and tubing seems about to come to life. Its function calls attention to widespread lack of clean water, which brings disease and death. In Mandy Greer’s Mater, Matrix, Mother and Medium, 2009, crocheted blue fabric is stretched in magnolia trees, suggesting water. Tom Zarrilli’s wryly humorous installation, A Song for the Dead Gardens, 2008-2 009, consists of gutterspouts, hoses, nozzles, sprinklers, wind chimes, and a tall censer arranged totem-style in accordance with the Southwestern Chaco culture’s rituals for invoking rain.
William Nixon’s impressive Salmon Run, 2008-2009, counts over two hundred life-size ceramic salmon, none identical, heading uphill to spawn. They swim, jump, and dive in a stream of bare dirt strewn with pine needles and autumn leaves beside an asphalt path. Sometimes only a tail or a dorsal fin is visible, furthering the illusion of water. The fish exist symbolically and simultaneously as the species now threatened with extinction by pollution and development and as the wise and spiritually powerful beings respected by Northwestern Native Americans. Nixon’s anthropological take on an ecological crisis is both thought-provoking and inspirational.
