Posts Tagged ‘Water’
an ocean of grief
February 20, 2013US town to turn drainage basin into public art
December 10, 2011Minnesota Public Radio recently reported that Jackie Brookner is advising and supporting the inhabitants of the City of Fargo in North Dakota on a major ecological art project funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The focus of the project is making use of a drainage basin, built to deal with heavy summer rains, as year round facilities for the community.
image from Jackie Brookner's page on the Women Environmental Artists Directory
There’s an interview with Brookner on the NEA blog and if you prefer listening to reading, you can hear her on the Social Practices Art Network.
In the UK Chris Drury’s Heart of Reeds in Lewes, West Sussex, is probably a comparable project. This constructed environment remediates industrial pollution whilst providing recreational space and managing rain water.
image from Heart of Reeds website
Too Shallow for Diving
October 27, 2011
Review of the exhibition Too Shallow for Diving: the 21st Century is Treading Water. The review contextualises current environmental and ecological arts practices across a wide range of media. The review discusses in detail work in the exhibition by Tim Collins + Reiko Goto, Carolyn Speranza, Prudence Gill, Jim Denney, Richard Harned, Roger Laib, Jamie Gruzska, Wendy Osher, Ann T. Rosenthal and Steffi Domike, Vanessa German, Maritza Mosquera, Lisa Link, David Stairs.
Water isn’t just about water
May 22, 2011The Waterfootprint.org website is a resource on direct and indirect water use:
People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, etc. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business.
This site provides a range of useful tools for understanding and analysing water footprints.
Water: Traditional Knowledge
April 30, 2011
Recognising the value of Traditional Knowledge is an ongoing project. The United Nations University’s Institute of Advanced Studies Traditional Knowledge Project contributed to the 5th World Water Forum in 2009. The proceedings published on their web site give a hint of the depth of this area.
There are various reports bringing traditional knowledge to bear on national and international water policy, including Northern Voices, Northern Waters from the North West Territories, the Anishinabek Report from Ontario and A Policy Statement on North Australian Indigenous Water Rights.
What is striking about all of these documents is that the meaning of water rights is deeply embedded in beliefs, cultural histories and traditional knowledge, but that the recommendations are framed in the modern management language of leadership, recommendations and executive summaries. This ability to frame critical issues with respect and also with impact is a particular strength of the voice of indigenous peoples: Gavin Renwick relates that the Elders talk about the need to be “strong like two people” meaning to be strong in the western culture, and also strong in the traditional culture.
More Water
March 23, 2011
Another interesting project around water.
Watershed: Art, Activitsm and Community Engagement is a programme organised by Raoul Deal and Nicolas Lampert looking at Milwaukee and the Great Lakes Basin. There are three phases spanning 1) community outreach, 2) public interventions, and 3) exhibition.
There is an interesting video about Colleen Ludwig’s piece in the exhibition and the work she has been doing around touching.
Another of the works addresses corporate power/politics and there is an excellent pdf download of info which is embedded into the artwork in the exhibition.
Hydromemories: Call for examples of artists working with water
March 8, 2011Hydromemories is seeking to build up an archive of artists working with water. The site already contains a number of interesting examples, to which one might add:
Betsy Damon, Keepers of the Waters,
Liz Ogilvie’s Bodies of Water amongst other works,
Anne Bevan’s Source amongst other works,
Common Ground’s Confluence and other projects,
Helix Arts’ Quaking Houses seen&unseen project,
as well as the Harrisons’, David Haley, Aviva Rahmani and a trawl through Greenmuseum’s archives…
Atlantic Rising – Message in a Bottle
January 11, 2011
Atlantic Rising is an outstanding project finding innovative and creative ways to talk about sea level rise, ocean currents and climate change. Will Lorimer, Tim Bromfield and Lynn Morris have travelled around the Eastern Atlantic seaboard most of Africa and Europe and the Western seaboard: South, Central and North America. All along the way they have been talking to and working with communities and young people. The stories, energy and enthusiasm is infectious and exciting.
The ‘message in a bottle project’ uses satellite tracking to give us a way to see how the ocean moves. It’s a great teaching tool and an inspiration.
Sea as Sculptress
August 30, 2010Ruth Wallen‘s project as Artist in Residence at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, in 1978 is an exemplary work and this slideshow/narrative is compelling. Using sculptures as a means to focus learning about the aquatic life of three locations around SF is brilliant.
Deepwater Horizon – the more you know…
May 18, 2010Rozanne Amico has done an amazing job of tracking and collating information about the oil haemorrage / volcano in the Gulf of Mexico. She has brought together news, comment, factual resources and also some humorous sites. If you want to know more about this massive massive disaster…
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/below-the-surface-of-oil-hemorrhage-by-roxanne-amico/
